


Gavin doesn't like dogs (yet)

by BabyMuffin93



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Androids are animals, Connor and Nines are police dogs, I just had a stupid idea, dog au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-06
Updated: 2018-10-20
Packaged: 2019-07-07 19:27:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 29,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15914754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BabyMuffin93/pseuds/BabyMuffin93
Summary: Alternate Universe, where making humanoid androids is still being questioned ethically, but there are animal androids. DPD already have one highly specialised police android dog: RK800 named Connor, and they're about to get even newer model - a RK900. Guess who's getting that puppy~~This is my first ever work in English, which isn't my native language, so feel free to point out any errors. Sorry if this is written badly -.-Inspired by art of Connor and Nines as dogs.





	1. Chapter 1

Gavin hated Mondays. It’s not like he hated his job – God knows detective was proud of being a cop – but the transition between his quiet, alone weekends and crowded police station was harsh. Especially when the sight right in front of him was making him roll his eyes in annoyance. Anderson and his stupid plastic pup were supposed to get going soon, but Hank sure took his time to fuck around, bouncing a ball and watching his dog catching it perfectly. Of course it had to be perfect each and every time – this android canine was a state-of-the-art after all, blah, blah, blah. One of the kind, a generous gift from CyberLife to “improve efficiency in our predict”, as Fowler said. Gavin sure had an idea where they can stick their generosity. There were a couple of other android dogs in DPD, standard models, but they all felt and behaved nothing like real dogs. This one – named Connor – could be easily mistaken for one, if not LED circle on his right temple and CyberLife blue collar. Connor resembled a Doberman, with slim but muscle body, greyish brown coat and warm, brown eyes. He was watching his human carefully, eyes glued to Lieutenant with blissful expression, like he was Santa and Jesus combined. Detective took a small sip of his coffee, to balance this cutsie-wootsie scene with something bitter. 

Who would’ve known that this old drunk head, who was so against _those metal toys, they can never be even a shadow of the real dog, and anyone who thinks that is even more drunk than I ever was_ – as Anderson previously stated, will be so happy to have one. Lieutenant already had a real dog, a saint Bernard (Gavin only know that, because Hank was always covered in fur and keep talking about his pet constantly), so he had something to compare. Sure, old fuck was having a real tantrum when he got assigned to robo pup by Fowler, but after some time, he must’ve forgotten that Connor wasn’t just a sack of nuts and bolts. And the to think that the whole precinct was placing bets when will Anderson loose his shit and quit. Reed bet on three days at best. Gavin understood concern about robot animals – they could pretend, but they were never as beautifully unpredictable and alive, and to be honest, why do they need android animals anyway? To make it easier for humans to interact with androids? It sure wasn’t easier for Reed, it only make him cringe. 

When Connor caught particularly tricky ball with ease and Hank burst into laughter, Gavin decided that’s enough. He stood up, making sure to rumble aggressively while doing so, and went to the breaking room. He cheered up a little when he saw one of the few people he could stand. Officer Chen was leaning on the table, probably waiting for coffee machine to make some.

“Avoiding work, I see.” He smirked at her.

“You’re not working either.” Tina responded, but also gave him a little smile.

“Well, I need a lot more coffee if I want to survive this goddamn dog show that Anderson is making.” He shrugged as he placed his mug next to Tina’s. 

“Speaking of dog show.” Officer Chen lowered her voice, like she was revealing some conspiracy.

”Did you get the mail from Fowler?”

“What mail.” Gavin frowned. He hasn’t done anything to get scolded by Fowler, well at least not recently. Or has he..?

“So you didn’t.“ She stated the obvious and Detective gave her impatient look “Well, you may want to sit down for this.”

“Will you tell me what are you rambling about before I’ll get a heart attack?” Barked Reed, but he did lean on the table.

“Okay, so apparently CyberLife thinks that giving their terminator pup to our precinct was a great success and they made another one.” She spat. Gavin blinked rapidly, trying to consume this information.

“Are you telling me we’re getting _another_ friggin’ Connor?”

“Oh, not exactly… but the point is, they invited the whole DPD to the presentation of this thing. In groups, for _better overall experience_ or something. I actually got the mail before the weekend, and went there. And dude… that was one hell of experience.”

“And you went silent about that, because fuck me?! “ Gavin slammed his fist on table, almost making their mugs fell off.

“Because I knew how you will react” Tina raised her hands in peaceful gesture “And I didn’t want to ruin your weekend. You’re already impossible to stand on Mondays. Before you say anything, I asked Fowler if he could spare you this, but he said no. You could ask him, when your urge to murder him will fade a little bit.”

“Geez, just admit that you’re chicken.” Detective crossed his arms on his chest, but was touched a bit that Tina was trying to cover for him. 

“I’ve only chickened once I saw this new metal doggo. Seriously, what they were thinking? It looked like a Connor… only that it didn’t look like a Connor at all.”

“Okay, what did you put into your coffee? Because this doesn’t make any sense. “ Gavin took a suspicious glance at Tina’s mug. She punched his shoulder lightly in response.

“Whatever, you’ll see it yourself. But I warn you, this thing gave me chills.”

“Oh, come on, this is just a piece of plastic that can fetch, I see it everyday in front of my desk. How bad can it be?”  
***

Gavin soon realised what Tina was trying to say. He was standing with other officers at open CyberLife space, resembling an obstacle course. There were things like loops, ladders, see-saws and other constructions. It reminded Gavin a playground or rather a training grounds back at police academy. And there was an android dog. Chen was right about it looking like Connor but not looking like a Connor at all. It shared the same body model, also resembling a slick Doberman or something similar, but it’s coat was white with a tinge of grey and subtle blue glare. But the thing that threw Gavin away was its eyes. Greyish blue, with the piercing cold stare, that felt like it was looking through all of them. This thing was scanning them, Reed could bet his ass on that. While Connor was trying to fool everyone that he was a real dog with mimicking waving his tail and eating Lieutenant shoes, with this canine someone fucked up really badly. Or it was supposed to be as far from being alive as possible. Hell, maybe the point was to make the criminals piss themselves and surrender by pure sight of this hellhound. 

Gavin looked around at his fellow officers, they all had uneasy expressions on their faces. Detective glanced over a familiar face of Chris, who was also not having a time of his life. If not for the CyberLife employee having the metal dog on the leash, some officers might back off from here. Even then, CyberLife guy was wearing a protective suit, like they weren’t taking any chances with this thing. 

“Welcome ladies and gentleman to the presentation of our latest police canine prototype, RK900. You are familiar with our RK800 model, and RK900 has all of its features plus we were able to eliminate the problems and bugs that appeared in its predecessor. It is also faster, more resilient and have more functions. “ he said proudly. Gavin rolled his eyes and lightly hit Chris’ shoulder with his own.

“This is so much like an old infomercial “ He whispered with a snarl. “They want us to think that without this “miracle” thing we couldn’t find our own asses. Bullshit, we were fine even before the first doggo terminator came.”

“Well, good thing that that thing is on our side.” Chris put his hands in his pockets, because he felt they were shaking a little.

“This one is, but with this commercial companies, you can never be sure.” Reed responded. “They can sell it to whoever pays them best or something.”

CyberLife guy was still bragging about RK900 with his best salesman smile. God, it was pretentious.

“…and I can assure you, this model is perfectly safe to work with, when given the right orders…”

“And you’re wearing this stupid armour just for the fashion, sure. “ Mumbled Gavin under his breath. When the talking part was finally over, CyberLife employee unleashed the dog and stepped aside a few steps. So they were cautions with this “perfectly safe” state-of-the-art prototype after all.

“RK900” He called. The android canine perked its ears immediately, eyes focused on the man giving him orders. “Go.”

And just like that, the dog hopped from sitting position, speeding from 0 to 80 in seconds. Gavin and other officers looked in awe, God this pup was fast, when robot gracefully navigated between bollards, not losing any speed. Then it hopped on wooden construction with ease and took a 10 feet jump through some rings to other part of obstacle course. Android went through a bunch of tunnels, the only thing giving away its presence was a moving blue light of its LED.  
From there, the dog jumped to water tank and picked a large metal box from the bottom of it. It didn’t even slow it down much, RK900 went to the surface holding the box with its teeth and throw it outside the water tank. The box fell with a big thud, and Reed wondered how much it weighted actually. The dog was already on its way to a long hallway closed by bulletproof glass. The sound of shooting rent the skies, as stationary guns from the other end of hallway started firing at the RK900. Gavin almost went to yell at the CyberLife guy, metal or not, he really didn’t like the idea of animal being fucking splattered all over the place. The canine however dodged all of it, running in zigzags, almost like it was dancing some deadly ballet. Then it jumped at one of the guns, some blue static coming from its jaws, and it bitten the barrel, crushing it immediately. The blue static jumped from that one gun to other, causing the short circuit in all of them.

“Motherfucker…” - Mumbled Reed. Was it really a police dog, or a war machine? Maybe in CyberLife someone thought they were the same thing, not really giving a fuck about the whole “none violence police”. Or they wanted to just show off, oh, they definitely wanted that. RK900 was already running at full speed again when other machine was throwing something resembling red and blue Frisbees. 

“It is supposed to destroy red ones and just catch the blue ones.” CyberLife guy explained. And the dog did just that, catching them gracefully before they hit the ground. There was a big contrast between it catching blue ones and putting them gently on the ground and crushing red ones rabidly with its teeth. Gavin swallowed hard at this sight.  
Then the throwing machine released a particularly tricky disc high into the air. Android jumped like it was nothing but it had too much velocity to not hit the wall before it. Reed and Chris both gasped, but RK900 just crashed through it and it didn’t seem like it affected the dog at all. It went forward and climbed a series of similar walls, avoiding being electrocuted by wired parts. Then it just jumped to the finishing line and sat still, like it has never moved in the first place.

“Like I was saying “ CyberLife employee finally broke through silence, pride all over his voice “This is our best model to this date, and it’s capable of working in the field like no other before, I can assure you. It was made to work harmoniously with a human officer, always obedient and focused on the job.” He patted the dog on the head, although with some minimal caution.

“Now, I can tell that you may be a little intimidated, but this model, like all our products, have a prime directive to always listen to an officer in charge.” He added, and Gavin didn’t like the way he called the dog “product”.

“So, somebody wants to come closer? It’s perfectly safe, and it knows all of the basic orders that you can think of.”

Despite CyberLife guy trained smile, nobody moved. RK900 was still looking at the distance, not caring much of all eyes focused on it. Reed looked around again. The tension in the air was almost touchable. This was stupid, all the fuss was about some plastic pup? Sure, it was strong and whatever, but at the end of the day, it was just that – a metal tool, no other than a gun – dangerous but made for use when handled with care. Reed was angry that this whole thing was obviously made to scare and impress them, like CyberLife was above their authority. Well, Gavin wasn’t exactly known for being scared of anybody, even when it wasn’t the most clever decision. He took a reserved step in the dog direction. It was worth just for the look on the CyberLife guy’s face, his confident smirk slowly fading.

“Oh, we have a volunteer. “ He said, while Gavin was carefully coming closer. Detective could hear Chris’ sight behind his back. Reed knew that this wasn’t a real dog, but he still avoided looking RK900 directly into eyes, to not upset it. At least that’s how he explained it to himself. 

“Very well, may I ask you name, officer?” Asked CyberLife guy, returning to his salesman tone.

“Detective Gavin Reed. And may I ask what were you thinking with that thing? We don’t really need a dog-size tank, believe it or not. “

“We’re just making sure that this model will be prepared for all the situations, Detective. We’ve heard how well our previous product is doing in your precinct but there’s always room for improvement.”

“Sure, it always is.” Gavin wasn’t even hiding his sarcasm all that much. He was now standing close enough to the RK900, that he could touch it. The canine was glancing all over him with a distant look. Gavin hunched a little bit, realising that he is being scanned. Fuck it, he’s not going to be scared by a dog, even a tin can like this. He reached with his hand to touch it, but RK900 started to growl, baring its teeth.

“Fuck..!” Reed jumped back and gave this CyberLife bastard a frowned look “What was this part about it having to listen to an officer?!”

“While yes, it listens to an officer in charge, but the point is, it isn’t assigned to anyone yet, so it stays in “preserve itself” mode. It is our newest invention, after all.“ he said calmly, but with a shadow of a smile on his lips. What a piece of shit..! He knew about it all along, but still wanted to put Gavin into his place. Well, Reed was having none of this shit. He took a few steps closer, ignoring the android’s growling. They couldn’t afford to let it attack a police officer, right? There would be law suits coming from every corner. Still, Gavin stood with caution, ready to fight or flight.

“Do not worry Detective, it can be changed at any time. RK900, please add Detective Reed to your database.” CyberLife employee ordered and the dog gave him one final look form head to toes, it’s LED whirling yellow, and stopped growling. But the android gaze was still heavy.

“You can now pet it, if you want.”

“No thanks, I’ve seen enough.” Gavin turned on his heel already. They were making fun of him, both the CyberLife prick and this plastic toy. Reed returned to his place next to Chris, and stayed here for the rest of the presentation. Now he remembered why he didn’t like dogs.

***

“So, how was it?” Tina stopped by Gavin’s desk the next day.

“Splendid, what do you think?” He spat, not even looking at her.

“Okay, I’m just messing with you, Chris actually told me everything. “ She shrugged her shoulders. “It was a dramatic tale about one’s bravery against metal devil .“ She threw her arms into the air and made a couple of action poses. Reed only sighed, looking at his terminal.

“Come on, was it that bad?”

“That’s not it, I’m being flooded by a missing robo toys cases .” He frowned, going through a number of reports, most recent from a CyberLife wildlife institute. No signs of outside entry, but plenty of inside damage, just like the androids forced their way out. Why would they, if they were as obedient and happy with their existence as CyberLife was wanting them to believe.

“You too? I guess everyone has their share but…”

“Reed! In my office, _now_!” Fowler stuck his head from his office and shouted. Gavin looked up, frozen in place. What has he done now? He didn’t need another disciplinary, that’s for sure… 

“Don’t look at me, I’ve done nothing and know nothing.” Tina raised her hands in surrender.

“Great. It was nice knowing you.” Detective sulked but stood up and went to Captain’s office. Fowler was sitting at his table, with an ominous smile on his face. Gavin didn’t know what to make of it.

“I’ve heard you got yourself familiar with CyberLife new canine model.”

“Just like the rest of the precinct .” Reed crossed his arms. He already didn’t like where this was going.

“Well, seeing how CyberLife was content with assigning their previous model with one of our officers, it only seems fitting that their newest creation would be given to us as well.”

“Okay, what has to do with me? “ Gavin decided to cut the shit.

“Listen, they came with a sponsored…”

“Jeffrey please, stop beating around the bush, just tell me what you want to tell me.” Detective interrupted without missing a beat.

“For God’s sake Reed, it’s Captain for you!” Fowler finally was looking like his usual, pissed off self. “And yes, they’re giving us the dog and I’m assigning it to you.”

“What? Are you kiddin’ me? There’s no way in hell! Why me, Goddamnit, those metal fuckers make me cringe!”

“First of all: watch your mouth, and second of all, it wasn’t my decision!” Fowler has already reddened on his cheeks.

“What do you mean “not your decision”?”

“Believe it or not, you were _the only one_ who even came close to this thing! And an officer can’t be afraid by his own dog! And CyberLife is pushing me to give it to you, and you know what? I think this is a great idea!”

“Jesus, Jeff… I mean, Captain, can’t you just give it to someone else? If this is some kind of punishment…”

“Gavin, listen up closely, ‘cause I won’t be repeating myself” Fowler stood up, looking furious “You’ve turned down all of your assigned human partners and I stopped giving you them, even if I should assign you to someone eventually. But I knew how this would end up, and believe me, I appreciate you as a police officer, you’re a good cop… so I gave up. But I thought, that this may be an opportunity for you to finally learn some teamwork, I mean – this metal dog doesn’t talk, doesn’t have any needs and obeys all orders. Think about it, it’s perfect!”

“Seriously, you think this is even a remotely good idea?” Gavin waved his hands, trying not to show how fluttered he was by Fowler calling him “a good cop”. “You know I can’t stand those terminators..!”

“I think I have a déjà vu” Fowler looked around theatrically “Just like I was hearing Hank before, but look at him… He’s actually glad to have Connor!”

“I’m not this drunk prick, and besides, he was obsessed with dogs in the first place.”

“For the last time Reed: watch your mouth. This is your last chance: either you take this dog, or any human partner I give you, or you hand over your badge. And that’s my final word” Fowler said dead serious and sat down. Gavin closed his fist so tight, that his knuckles turned white. Was Jeffrey not pulling his leg this time? He knew Detective was determined to hold his job, it was all he had. 

“Well?” Fowler was growing impatient. Gavin took a deep breath, like he was about to say something, but just let out a groan. Fuck, out of those three options, having an android dog didn’t sound so bad, as much as Reed hated to admit it.

“…Fine. But don’t expect me to go crazy over it like Anderson.”

“I wasn’t betting on that. Good decision, Reed. I really want you to stay with us.”

“It’s not like I had much choice.” Gavin mumbled under his breath. Fortunately Fowler hasn’t noticed or simply didn’t give a shit at this point.

“Anyway, CyberLife is looking for another success, try not to fuck it up, so I won’t have to deal with them, okay? And if you do well… Don’t think I forgot about those promotion papers you keep sending me.” Fowler smirked, seeing with satisfaction how Gavin’s eyes shine with hope. He’s been asking Captain to send his application to higher authorities for months now.

“You’re sure..? Captain.” He added politely.

“We’ll see about that. Anyway, you go to CyberLife tomorrow to start training with your new partner. Everything clear?”

“Yes sir.” It was all Gavin could say at this point.


	2. Chapter 2

“Are you sure I need to know _all_ of this?” Gavin pointed at humungous book in his hands. Under Cyberlife logo the title said “RK900 instruction manual”. Jesus, this thing was thicker than the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy combined. Reed was sure you could kill someone by just dropping this on them. He flicked through pages, just to find out that this was written like any other manual to mechanical device; which meant fucking impossible to understand. And he thought his dishwasher manual was translated from Chinese or something… Well, this one sounded like it was translated from Elvish. Maybe it was Lord of the Rings after all.

“Not really, our company just wants to cover any possible scenario and functions, so I don’t think you’ll be using more than 30, maybe 40% of that.” CyberLife employee laughed at the sign of completely lost Detective, but there wasn’t any maliciousness in that, just amusement. Thankfully for Gavin, it was other CyberLife employee than before, a cheerful blonde that introduced herself as Chloe. She looked much more chill than this stiff dipshit from RK900 presentation. The android dog itself was just sitting next to her like a marble statue.

“It’s still a shit ton of information to go through.” Gavin sulked, leaving manual at the table nearby.

“Don’t worry, the things you’ll be using most are intuitive, it’s our latest model after all, made specifically to work with police officer.” Chloe patted the android head, even if robo pup didn’t react at all.

“If this thing is so intuitive, why do I need a training?” He spat, sounding more unfriendly that he actually was planning. The CyberLife woman frowned her eyebrows, but remained calm.

“It has many references and preconstructed scenarios to respond to situation accordingly by itself, but overall it can be only as good as its human partner lets them. For best results, it is required to know what are the capabilities of this particular android, to avoid giving it counterproductive orders. Even if it can calculate the best solution, it’s a source of unnecessary confusion. It is designed to work harmoniously _with_ human, and this requires some level of trust.” She claimed with professional tone, such a contrast to a cheerful behaviour from earlier. Well, she wasn’t in CyberLife for nothing. Gavin glanced over his own shoes. He didn’t want to be here, and he definitely didn’t want to be called too stupid for plastic toy to listen to him.

“So you’re saying that if I start giving it wrong orders, it may just ignore me and do whatever it wants?” Detective had to admit, this dog looked like a smartass that can do just that. “Who is going to be trained here exactly, me or this dog?”

“Well, both of you to be honest. You need to learn how to work together, so think about this as trust lessons.” She shrugged her shoulders, but was smiling again. Gavin sighed, feeling tense. “There are no wrong orders per say, but when you know its full potential, you can avoid asking for something that is not optimal for this model. And yes, it can ignore you if it goes against his prime directive.” 

“Great, I’m gonna be judged by my own dog… “ Reed focused at RK900. Shit, this thing was already looking like it was judging him with cold eyes. “So what, are we going to close eyes and catch each other or something? If you ask me to talk about feelings or some shit…”

“Not necessarily, it is an advanced prototype, but not _that_ advanced.” Chloe laughed and took a tablet, launching some kind of program. Gavin couldn’t get anything out of this, it was just a bunch of charts and numbers. 

“If this dog is that advanced, wouldn’t it be better to give it to K9 unit?” He said. Even if he knew that at this point nothing could convince CyberLife to take their metal dog anywhere else, he had to try. “I’m more cat person to be honest.” He admitted. 

“Don’t worry, this isn’t an actual dog.” Chloe crouched down next to the canine and pointed to its LED. “See this? It’s here mostly for humans. Blue indicates being able to work, yellow when processing data and red when system is overwhelmed by something.” RK900 tilted its head, focusing on Chloe. Just as she was saying, its LED whirled with yellow for a second, before returning to blue.

“Great, it seems that Nines finally downloaded all data from its predecessor.”

“Nines?”

“Oh sorry, it’s just how I call it, saying RK900 over and over is too much of a mouthful . You can give it any name you want.” Chloe blushed a little, scratching android behind the ear. Gavin could tell that she was fond of this dog, which was understandable to some point – it was CyberLife state-of-the-art prototype… but she seemed to genuinely like their creation just as it was. Reed wondered if this was necessary, since the first CyberLife guy just treated RK900 as company product.

“Nah, Nines is fine, I’ve never been good with names.” Reed waved his hand. His own cats were named Kitty and Fluffy, even if he often called them something like _comehereyoulittlebastard_.

“Anyway, can we start now?” Chloe stood up and shifted a bunch of windows on her tablet.

“Sure, let’s get this show on the road.” Gavin glanced over android, who was still not looking interested in any of its surroundings.

“Okay, RK900 register your owner… and your new name: Nines.” Chloe pointed to Detective. Nines finally turned to Reed and nailed him with its blue eyes. It sent shivers down Gavin’s spine, but he stood straight, at least he hoped that he did. Android let out a short bark, like it was confirming that it got it done. Gavin almost didn’t notice that Chloe put something in his hand.

“A ball? Really? I though it wasn’t a real dog.”

“It’s a start. And it gives you an opportunity to know each other.” She said with her best business smile. Reed rolled his eyes, but threw the ball not putting much effort in this. All three of them (including Nines) watched as the ball hit the ground and rolled a little bit. No one moved.

“Okay, either I am an idiot or this dog doesn’t know it’s supposed to be a dog.” Gavin sulked, tapping his foot with irritation.

“You need to give Nines an order. It can’t read minds… yet.” Chloe winked, with a shadow of smile in the corners of her lips. She was thinking that Gavin _was_ an idiot, he was sure. At least she was considerate enough not to outright laugh at him. She gave Reed another ball and made a gesture with her hands. Detective turned himself to Nines, who was now tracking every man’s move to the point of being creepy.

“Listen to me Fido, I’m your owner now” He pointed to his grey eyes and then to android’s blue ones. Nines LED started whirling, but remained blue. 

“Fetch or something.” As soon as the ball left Gavin’s hand, Nines took off, jumping over a dozen feet into the air. It caught the ball effortlessly and returned to his new owner, putting the round object next to Reed’s feet. It still looked like a marble statue, not affected by anything, and it made Detective angry. CyberLife was putting so much effort for this things to look real, but ultimately they were just machines, so why bother? At least this one didn’t even try to fool anyone like Connor did, but it still begged the question why even keep making them as animals? They could look as mechanical as they were inside for all Gavin cared.

“Good. We’ll try a couple of other exercises, and then we’ll call it a day.“ Chloe probably sensed the shift in the mood, so she quickly went to another activity. “It’s a good start and we still have a couple more meetings to improve.”

“Great.” Gavin sighed, lightly kicking the ball. Nines’ eyes followed the ball, but the dog stood still, not given any order. It’s going to be a long day…  
***

“This is fucking weird” Gavin mumbled under his nose, as he looked at the colourful plastic ring moving by itself. Well, not by itself, Nines was caring it, but the android had his camouflage on, so it looked like the ring was possessed. Creepy as shit. Reed could kind of tell where his dog was only because he knew what to look for –tiny shifts in the air, like ones over a road in hot weather. The ring was placed next to Detective, but Nines remained invisible. This thing was definitely aware that his owner felt unconfortable, so Gavin was sure it was teasing him. Fucking androids.

“Come on, turn this off you creep.” He commanded with irritation. Nines did as he was said, but Reed wasn’t sure if this was a good thing, as now a pair of blue eyes started burning a hole in Detective’s neck. Gavin sighed and picked up the ring that his dog gave him. He scanned its QR code with CyberLife tablet and immediately a green window popped up. 

“You picked the right one again, what a surprise.” Detective threw the ring on the table, next to other ones. Nines was supposed to scan those things for traces of drugs and other substances and bring them, never making a mistake, obviously. Gavin glanced over his android, stoic as ever. He was always lost with this thing when Chloe wasn’t around, but she insisted to give the human-dog pair some space. Nines didn’t really care for treats or any kind of approval from anyone and Reed was bored out of his mind with just watching terminator pup doing everything perfectly. He swiped through possible options until he reached _Advanced options: administrator only_. A lot of warnings showed up, but he ignored them. He could handle one plastic hound…

“Cyber terrorist attack scenario… the fuck?” Who in their right mind would program something like that in android dog? Oh right, this was CyberLife, and they loved just showing off what they could do. Gavin pressed some buttons and the whole room started changing: walls shifted in place, hexagonal glass pieces emerged from ceiling and went to identical holes in the floor, creating a strange labyrinth. Reed squinted his eyes as some strong light appeared at the center of room. It resembled a pillar of some sort, but it was so bright white that it was hard to tell. Detective caught a glimpse of red in Nines LED, but the android itself was still as emotionless as always. A glitch maybe?

“Whatever.” Detective snorted, feeling obligated to stay as calm as his canine, in case it was evaluating him as well. He stretched his hands, like it was him who was going to do… well, he wasn’t even sure what the goal of this was. Gavin read through instructions, but he couldn’t get his head around it.

“Okay tin can, do your thing.” He waved his hand in no particular direction. Android pup was still sitting there, looking… confused? Reed was taken aback by this, but before he could think of the reason, canine was already off.

“Nines?” He shouted after canine. RK900 run up to first wall and showed his teeth. Gavin almost jumped when Nines took skin from his head and revealed white skeleton underneath. It was surreal how mechanical its jaw was moving when android clenched his teeth on interface panel on the wall. The light in the room flickered rapidly, and Gavin covered his ears when alarm went off. 

“Shit!” This wasn’t good. Reed tried to cancel this whole shitstorm, clicking every possible option on tablet, but to no avail. He looked over to Nines, his dog still clinging to panel. What was he even doing? Whatever it was, android wasn’t doing the best job, ‘cause some electricity went through walls. Nines visibly shivered, but remained in place. No no no, Gavin couldn’t afford breaking this thing, why this state-of-the art model wasn’t smart enough to fucking _run_ when it was being electrocuted?! With curses spilling from his mouth and head spinning form this goddamn alarm, Detective jumped to his android.

“Stop it you prick, you fucked it up!” Technically it was Reed who fucked it up, but he’ll have a time to think through his poor life choices later. RK900 was not having any reaction, so Gavin tried to simply pull his dog out of it, but he hissed and jumped back when electricity going through Nines zapped him as well. The light pillar was dangerously red now, giving everything a disturbing glow. 

“What kind of twisted asshat programed something like this?!” He rubbed his hands, still having crawly feeling under his skin. 

“Nines! NINES! LET GO!” Detective tried again, now putting everything in this one quick move. He felt another sting of current, but wrapped his arms around Nines anyway and pulled canine back. Sparks went from RK900 teeth as he disconnected from panel with a click sound. Gavin’s pull was so fierce that both of them ended on the floor. 

“What is your problem?! Stop moving, dickhead!” Nines was trying to break free, wriggling ferociously and whimpering. Reed turned himself, pinning his dog to the ground. 

“I.Told.You.To.Stop.Fucking.Moving.” He spat every word clenching his teeth. RK900 finally fixed his gaze on his owner. The dog eyes were full of frustration, either from pain (could they even feel pain?) or from failing his mission. 

“ I’m your goddamn owner, when I tell you something I _expect_ you to do it! Get it to your little silicon brain!” He knocked on android’s LED, that was still red.

“ That’s why _I am_ in charge here! Yu can act like a smartass, but you’re nothing more than slightly advanced smartphone on four legs! Most advanced my ass… you can only blindly follow orders, even if this means blowing everything up! You’re nothing without me!” He continued shouting, mostly to blow off some steam. Nines started growling with low voice, but it didn’t stop Reed. The sparks of electricity were still present in the air, literally flying around them, a visible representation of tension between human and canine.

“Responding to situation and learning… now that’s something a _real_ dog can do, because it has brains and some fucking guts, not this metal clusterfuck that is you.” Gavin shook his dog, not giving a fuck. Damn plastic was bulletproof, so a little shake couldn’t do it much harm. The ongoing alarm was getting on man’s nerves quickly.

“You can’t even do what you’re supposed to do, you should be deactivated and thrown off the…” Detective stopped, because Nines launched and bit him in one of the hands. Gavin groaned in anger and surprise, taking his hands off RK900. The android took his chance and before Reed knew it, he was laying on the floor, his own android on top of him. Nines was growling loudly, showing his teeth next to Detective’s face.

“Phck” Gavin whispered, but he hold canine’s gaze. This thing couldn’t harm him, right? Except it just did that. Brown haired man swallowed hard, as Nines barked shortly over his owner neck. Now they were in deadlock, Reed not knowing what to do next and RK900 apparently not knowing either. However, Nines could stay here ‘till the judgement day and human couldn’t.

“Sit.” It was all Gavin could do at this point. No response though. “Roll over? Play dead – okay, that’s kind of stupid, but…” 

“What’s going on here?!” Fortunately for Detective, Chloe decided to return just in time. Blonde took a look of changed room, mouth open in disbelief. She couldn’t leave them for ten minutes, could she? 

“T-that’s our cyber-attack simulation, it never went through final tests..!” She shuttered, carefully moving to the tablet that Gavin dropped.

“Yeah, I figured out this much. Can you tell him to fuck off? Please?” Gavin pointed to Nines, who stopped growling, but continued to pin Reed to the ground. Chloe pushed some options on portable device and alarm finally went silent, although Detective’s ears were still ringing. The room returned to its previous state, hexagonal walls hiding in the ceiling and pillar of light disappearing completely, even if Gavin couldn’t tell where, since he was laying on the floor. Nines eventually moved and Reed could sit, giving his android a furrowed look. Well, tin can was showing some emotions at last, but it was something between being frustrated and guilty, and Reed wasn’t sure if he wanted to see this.

“Are you okay?” Chloe was already crouching next to brunet, concerned. “How could this happen, I thought it was labelled as administrator only..? Detective?” She asked, almost out of breath. Gavin remained silent for a solid minute, before sighing and shrugging his arms.

“I screwed it up, I admit. You could put some password on it, you know.” He tried to shrug this off, as this was not a big deal. “But this genius Furby ignored me completely and glued to this touchpad-thingy like his life depended on it! I could end this if it weren’t for…”

“No, no you couldn’t.” Chloe interrupted Reed’s attempts of excusing himself. “This simulation has tendencies to glitch and unless you know _exactly_ what options to choose, you couldn’t end this task completely.” She said seriously, not looking at Detective, but rather at Nines. Dog was sitting with his head bowed down. “We already had a case of injury from electricity in our staff because they went there before the test was over and also – Nines doesn’t take transferring this data well.” Chloe sounded outright bitter. 

Gavin touched the bridge of his nose, trying to hide embarrassment. Okay, it was his fault even if Nines was being… too determined on completing this idiotic trial? Well, it was Reed who gave him an order. For all his shouting about being in charge here, he should take responsibility for his pup. Still, how was he supposed to know? Why would those CyberLife bastards make something this dangerous at all and don’t bother to give any kind of warning? It’d be easier if Nines could talk but on the other hand – maybe it was for the best.

“Okay, my bad, but I still think this dog should listen to me in an emergency situation..!” Detective threw his hands in the air, trying to gesture something, but hissed when a wave of pain went through his left one. 

“Wait, are you hurt?” Blonde girl’s gaze softened slightly as she looked over Detective’s forearm. Gavin only now realized his leather jacket was ripped here. He rolled up his sleeve to reveal a circle of small wounds, resembling a traces of needles. Only a few drops of blood was showing on Reed’s skin. 

“This bastard bit me, but it’s not a big…”

“What?!” Chloe seemed horrified. She was shifting her gaze from Gavin to Nines and back to Gavin again.

“It’s nothing but I would appreciate if he didn’t do that again… I mean, come on, it’s _my_ dog afterall.” 

“You don’t understand.” Chloe sat on the ground, her look distant. Reed tilted his head in confusion, while Nines’ LED kept spinning red. Dog’s ears were flopped, like he was trying to be smaller. Okay, it was shitty, but…

“They have a security directive that prevents them from harming a human without their owners direct order. Especially _their owner_. That is a serious malfunction in their core programing.” She claimed blankly, like she was just figuring out what that meant for them.

“So what?” Gavin shouted, ‘cause this tension was killing him.

“If I report that, they will have to turn Nines off and terminate him.” She admitted quietly.

“Wait what?!” Reed threw his hands in the air again, ignoring the sting in his forearm. This was some serious bullshit. Okay, Gavin was spitting curses out at his android and told him that should threw him off, but this was in the heat of the moment; he didn’t mean it. Now he felt like an owner of dog who was about to be put down just because his stupid human couldn’t control it. Fuck, even Reed could tell it wasn’t fair.

“Do you have to report that?” He asked shyly. “I mean, I don’t wanna trouble and it was me who turned this electric death trap on, so…”

“Well, I should, but if you choose to stay quiet about that, I can made this cyber attack failure look like a simple error in programing while trying to choose some normal exercise.” Chloe suggested an idea, watching Gavin with hope. Nines was also lurking over his owner, his LED now changing rapidly between red and yellow.

“It’s a deal then.” Reed crossed his arms. He wanted to be out of here and return to his apartment, there nobody was trying to kill him. Well usually, if he hasn’t forgotten to feed his cats before he left for work. His android finally lifted his head, focusing on Detective with a gleam in his eyes.

“But I’m fed up with all this good-for-nothing tests. The real test begins in the field, ‘ya know?” He stood up, straightening his clothes. Chloe stood up too, shaking her head and putting her hands on hips.

“I’m not sure about that, but I can agree that the _real_ test awaits outside.” She took a critical look at her phone, like it was going to bit her.  
“Mrs Amanda won’t be happy about that.” Chloe sighed while plugging her phone to the room’s interface panel.


	3. Chapter 3

“Ugh” Gavin hissed as he bumped into his desk while trying to read through case files. He almost spilled the coffee that he was also carrying with him and Nines jumped to his owner’s legs. Reed however kept his balance and skipping on one leg reached to his chair, sitting with a loud thud. Android fixed his eyes on human, his LED yellow for a second and he sat next to Detective’s chair, keeping a distance though. Gavin’s eyebrows plunged into a frown when he searched more records from interrogation with a man that reported a missing daughter. Todd Williams sounded outright offended by officer Person’s long line of questions and wanted the police to start searching for his daughter immediately; which was totally understandable in this situation, but there was something off about him. Reed couldn’t really wrap his head around it, maybe that was Mr Williams way of dealing with a stress. He stated that Alice, his daughter, went for a walk with their dog, Kara, and never returned home. It seemed standard enough but there was a catch – Kara was an _android_ dog. Okay, people still walked with their plastic toys, more for humans attempts of mimicking having a real animal than from actual need od robot; but Todd when asked for a possible time when his daughter left home started to quibble.  
  
First he stated that it was around eight o’clock, but when officer Person asked Todd if he has called any of Alice’s friends in hope she stayed overnight or contacted them, he remembered that Alice’s friend Emma called her around nine-thirty, so she had to leave at ten. Why would Todd allow his 9 year old daughter to go for a walk that late? With a dog that doesn’t really _need_ a walk to begin with. And if Gavin remembered correctly, this night there was a real heavy rain, ‘cause he tried to quickly go to a shop for some beer, and went home soaking wet. When Todd was questioned about that, he simply said that Kara was malfunctioning lately, and that Alice was determined to help her pet by treating it like a real dog; which Todd didn’t really approved but he _didn’t want to brake Alice’s heart_.  
  
Reed huffed a breath; some people could easily forget that androids weren’t functioning the like a living beings. Or maybe, people wanted them to be real and when in doubt, humans turned to treating them as such, because it was familiar, it was something they could relate to, not a bunch of wires and programing that was too hard to comprehend. Especially when talking about child, for God’s sake, kids always stated that their stuffed animals and other toys were alive… and this was a moving, barking, responding to orders android that we’re talking about.  
  
Gavin looked at some of Kara’s repairs reports – and yes, it was brought to a service three times in the last two months, but it always was due to some kind of damage. A hit by a car, a fall from height and another hit by a car. Always by Kara’s giddiness, at least that was reported. You’d think that after that streak of accidents, Todd will replace reckless android but it seems that Alice was very attached to it. Detective looked at Alice and Kara’s photos: they looked pretty normal, just a girl and her pet, nothing extraordinary maybe except the fact that Kara was an android: resembling a pale greyhound of some sort, not that Gavin was too familiar with dog breeds.  
  
Reed side-eyed his own dog, not moving an inch from his side. Well, Fowler told Gavin that he _has_ to take some android involved cases, especially now that he has Nines, and while this case was about missing person there _was_ an android involved, so this was a middle ground between what Reed wanted and what he had to do. He already wrote email to Fowler saying that he’s taking Alice Williams’ case. After that, he went through all files again, hoping to find more details. Detective saw a notification of Fowler’s response, but didn’t bother with opening an email itself, he knew Fowler was more than happy to give Reed some work. He glimpsed at another notification, this one was a report from around train station downtown – Alice Williams has been seen there.  
  
  
“Yes” Gavin stood up immediately, taking his coffee with him and Nines perked up his ears. Maybe this will be a good day after all.  
  
  
“ Which cup of coffee is it already? You seem too jumpy even for you, I hope there is _some_ caffeine left here for us.” Or maybe, it’s going to be even more shitty than Reed though, as he heard a familiar grumpy voice behind him.  
  
  
“You don’t have to worry Anderson, there is still enough for you to pour some liquor in it and pretend that nobody knows about that.” Gavin spat, taking a teasing sip from his cup. He was not going to give a single fuck about Anderson today. Lieutenant however only waved his hand like he didn’t hear Reed and focused on Nines. Connor was walking right behind his owner and started to wave his tail at the sight of his successor.  
  
  
“So the rumors were true – you got yourself an android.” He looked a little taken aback by RK900. Now that both models were standing next to each other, the similarities between them were as clear as day, but also all the little differences. Hank’s expression quickly shifted to more curious and somehow… soft towards new model. Reed was going to bet that this was only because Nines reminded Anderson of his little toy.  
  
  
Connor playfully barked and started to jump in circle around Nines, visibly excited about the idea of having another metal dog like him in the precinct. Nines was staring at his predecessor with a confusion, tracking every Connor’s move like dark dog was about to jump on him, LED spinning yellow, analysing.  
  
“  
Yeah, I guess if you could handle one of them, it can’t be that hard.” Gavin shrugged, watching puzzled Nines with a bit of amusement. Someone in CyberLife fucked up badly, ‘cause it seemed that even Nines wasn’t sure if he was supposed to be a dog. Which was ironical, considering that the other dog was an android too. Connor bent his forepaws in playful position and waved his tail broadly, inviting another dog to play but Nines was even stiffer than normal (if it was even possible) and was clearly trying to wrap his processors around Connor’s intentions. When Connor tilted his head and decided to come closer to Nines, sniffing curiously, RK900 showed his teeth and hold his tail high, LED pulsating. Connor’s LED also pulsated in the same rhythm and Hank’s dog backed away, but he was still glancing over Nines. Well, it seemed that was all that newer android knew – when in doubt, give a non-pleasant warning.  
  
  
“As social as his owner I see.” Anderson smirked at this, something warm in his eyes that Reed wasn’t sure what was that about.  
  
  
“Whatever, I don’t have time for slacking off like you do.” Gavin was already passing by Hank, not looking back at Nines – android was following him everywhere anyway.  
  
“Wait smartass, we’re coming with you.” Hank held younger man’s shoulder. Reed snapped his head furiously but before he could say something, Anderson continued: “It’s about Alice Williams isn’t it? Then it’s our case too.”  
  
“What?” Eloquent as ever, Gavin stared at Hank. Lieutenant sighed and shook his head as let his hand off other man’s shoulder.  
  
“We’re assigned to all android involved cases. I know Jeffrey wants you to slowly take some of it from us, now that you also have… an android.” Hank fixed on Nines, who was already staring at Lieutenant suspiciously, although a little less murderously since he let Reed free. Connor was close to Hank’s leg, scanning all of them with a concern in his eyes. Even If Anderson didn’t mention it, it was implied that Fowler (and probably everyone at the precinct) still wasn’t sure if this partnership wouldn’t end up with disaster, thus giving Gavin a babysitter. And that alone made Reed furious – okay, he knew what people were thinking of him and he didn’t care, but there was one thing Gavin definitely _was_ : a cop that got shit done. No matter what, who he has to shoot, what enemies he’ll make in a rat race, what disciplinary warnings he’ll get. And if Anderson could work with a plastic, then Reed was more than capable to do that too.  
  
“I don’t need you breathing down my neck. Maybe Fowler should be more concerned about your work standards than mine. Just because you let your Fido do most of the work doesn’t mean you’re suddenly a functioning cop again. Everyone knows you’re here only because of your past and Fowler don’t have guts to fire his old buddy… He’s afraid that without this job you’ll end up in some gutter.” Brunet crossed his arms, challenging Anderson to argue with him. If he wanted to make a quarrel that the whole precinct will hear, Reed was more than happy to give it to him. Even more – he looked forward to get some anger out of his body.  
  
“Listen up asshole, I don’t really care what you do, I just want to find that little girl and not to make a dick measurement contest out of it.” Hank grabbed younger man by his leather jacket. Nines was instantly growling at Anderson, standing dangerously close to Lieutenant’s crotch. Connor was quick enough to stand between his owner and his successor, Nines now grinding his teeth at him. People around them turned their heads to the commotion, but nobody has really moved towards them or said anything – it was too common for Gavin to be in a situation like this. If that meant that this will be one of this days when Fowler calls them to his office, Reed was ready for that.  
  
“Can you tell him to back off?” Hank focused on Connor being uncomfortable. Older android was visibly stuck between protecting Anderson and not wanting to attack other dog. Connor tensed, his LED rapidly spinning but he stood still. “We can jump on each other’s throats all day, but I don’t wanna them to fight over our stupid asses.”  
  
“Who would’ve thought you’ll be such a plastic dogs enthusiast.” Reed scoffed, breaking free from Hank’s grip. Surly Anderson got scared for his own dick, and this sight made Gavin smirk. He almost wanted to tell Nines some praise like “good dog” for it, but then again – Nines wasn’t a dog nor would he understand what was it all about. Reed just stared at RK900 and canine’s expression (can you even call it that in a _dog_?) became more calm. In the meantime Hank patted his android gently, also looking at Nines.  
  
“What’s his name?” He asked suddenly, eyes still on Nines.  
  
“What?” Detective was so surprised that he repeated his incredibly smart question.  
  
“Your dog’s name, what do you think I asked about – your boyfriend’s?” Reed’s ears turned red as he poked finger at Hank’s chest.  
  
“I don’t need you _or_ your stupid Lassie. Now if you excuse me, I’ve got work to do.” He spat again and turned on his heel. He heard Nines following him but also Hank and his dog.  
  
“We’re going there anyway, with or without you.” Anderson patted Connor’s head as the android jumped around him. “And I’m not exactly thrilled about working with you either, but you know what? I’m more concerned about this dog than about you. They can be… confusing in some aspects.” He glanced over Connor who was panting happily, even if he didn’t have a need to be breathing at all. Reed was kind of shocked by the sincerity of this statement. Even if it was ruined by Anderson’s following words: “Especially when paired with a blockhead.” Okay, so he was still an idiot in Hank’s book, good to know.  
  
“…Nines.” Gavin said with a huff in his voice. He just wanted to end this conversation already. Hank was not going to let it go anyway. “His name is Nines.”  
  
“Weird.”  
  
“Says one with the dog named after the Highlander. Mine already came with his.” Reed walked towards the door, deciding not to bother with his own stalkers. He wasn’t going to explain that it was CyberLife employee idea to call this android like that, why would Anderson care anyway? He already had his toy.  
  
“Mine too. And how do you know this film anyway? It must be an ancient history for you.”  
  
“It’s a fucking _classic_.” Gavin sounded offended, although you could tell by the tone of his voice, that it wasn’t serious. “You may think low of me, but I didn’t thought you were thinking that low.”  
  
“Maybe it’s for the best that you don’t know what I think of you.” Anderson’s lips curled in a teasing smile. “Anyway, you want to go with us? We’re heading to the same place.” He made a gesture and Connor immediately ran to Lieutenant’s desk and brought his car keys. Hank scratched his dog behind his ear and twirled keys with another hand. Nines was staring at two of them, examining their behaviour, but still confused. The canine’s eyes went over Gavin’s desk and then to Gavin himself like Nines was asking if he should do something similar. Reed only rolled his eyes at this. This circus was already on the road and if he liked it or nor – with him on board.  
  
“Just because I can’t really go by my bike with this thing.” He pointed to his android, Nines side-eyeing him with his head low. CyberLife sent Nines directly at the precinct (he was a DPD possession first and Gavin’s second after all) so Reed thought about taking a cab for today… or making Nines run alongside his bike – surly state-of-the art terminator could’ve keep up. Anderson must’ve gotten soft since he got his stupid pet, otherwise he would never suggest something like that. Or he wanted to irritate Gavin more, but Detective decided that he was curious enough to check what Lieutenants’ intentions were .  
  
“You can always buy a sidecar to it.” Hank suggested with a laugh. “Now _that_ would be a view.”  
  
“Oh fuck off.” Was the best response Gavin could think of.  


****

********** **

***

“  
Tell your droid to sit on his ass, would ya?” Gavin curled in his sit staring at Connor, who was currently sticking half of his body out of car’s window, patting enthusiastically. This tin can was clearly taking this whole “real dog” shit too seriously. Reed was sitting in the back of the car – Anderson said only Connor is allowed to sit in the front, like Gavin and Nines were the troublesome kids – even if right now it was Connor who was almost jumping out of car. In the meantime Nines was just staring blank in front of him, not paying attention to his predecessor, while Reed was questioning why the fuck he agreed to take this ride. The music (if you can even call it that) that was playing weren’t giving him any favours – some loud metal with a singer that sounded like an animal being stabbed. No wonder Connor sticked his head out; Gavin wanted to do that as well.

“It’s my car and besides – he’s not doing anything bad, geez – take that stick out of your ass.” Hank only shrugged his shoulders, watching his pet with a smug. Bastard must’ve teach him that. Reed sat back as he went through more information about Alice Williams and her android on his phone. He raised an eyebrow at the option to _transfer evidence data to owned android_ and when Gavin expanded this link, Nines’ model number popped up.

“The fuck?” He held the screen closer to his face. Hank shoot him a glance in a driving mirror. “They can upload every file we have? Why would they need all of that..?” Reed murmured, resting his head on car’s window. Nines shifted a little bit towards his owner, like he knew that he was the main point of discussion.

“Yeah, they can analyse that shit, but hell if I know how this works. “ Anderson sighed lightly. Gavin was glad that Hank was such a knucklehead with technology; he couldn’t stand the thought of this old fuck calling him idiot for not knowing something about android pups. At least Reed had an excuse – he had Nines only for couple of days while Anderson had his for couple of weeks.

“Something about helping them track the person or whatever. They included shit that belonged to this girl.” He added like he wanted to prove Gavin wrong, even if Detective himself didn’t say anything. Reed decided to upload this data anyway; it didn’t hurt to be prepared. He tilted his head watching Nines’ LED spin yellow for a few seconds, even if dog itself didn’t move beside that.

“Classified as potential kidnapping? We don’t really have anything to support this or… Can you fucking turn that down before I lose my hearing completely? Jesus Christ..!” He snapped, covering his ears. If Anderson was so old to be almost deaf already it was his own fucking problem. Not even bothering to look back Hank turned volume up to deafen Reed’s curses.

“Just 'Hank' is fine, I’m no one’s Lord and Saviour.” Lieutenant gave him a shit eating grin, shouting over the music. However when Gavin angrily put his hood on, older man actually fulfilled Reed’s request and shut the radio down.

“Her father said that he thinks it could be a kidnapping, so here we are. But if you ask me, this dude is lying through his teeth.”  
Reed remained silent but he nodded, mostly to himself. This was a running away from home if he ever saw one. They were almost at the on the spot, so he didn’t try to make to comment on that.

Lieutenant made a turn to an alley; Gavin could already see other police cars and officers walking around. They could as well bring a big flashy sign “Police” with them. Connor barked happily at familiar faces and as soon as car has stopped he jumped through window completely, already running around and sniffing, before others even opened their doors. What a goody-goody. He stopped at one officer and bounced next to him, waving his tail. The man gave android a beaming smile, forgetting they were in work, and scratched Connor between his ears.

“Hi Ben. What do we have here?” Hank waved to the cop and Connor returned to his owner’s side. Gavin and Nines slowly followed them to the area near the convenient store. This neighbourhood surly didn’t look that appealing but most of the suburbs were like that this days.

“Good to see you too.” Ben turned to Hank, sliding something on his tablet. “This guy… Isaac Falone, a bus controller, reported that he saw a girl and a dog that fit the description of Alice Williams and her android, so we locked the area.”

“Great, we’re only missing a helicopter and a fucking National Guard around. Maybe someone will scream to a megaphone? I mean, if we’re planning to scare away this brat or a potential kidnapper, we’re not obvious enough.” Gavin threw his hands in the air, ignoring Hank’s stare.

“Says someone who enters the building by throwing a grenade in it.” Lieutenant crossed his arms.

“Hey, this was one time and it _was_ an emergency.”

“Sure, ‘cause any situation would be better with an explosion.”

“We’ve got every corner secured and we also found this.” Ben decided to let Reed’s comment slide and pointed to a police car with a security bars in the back. There was something moving franticly in a cage. Connor and Nines immediately went there, Connor leaning to the cage and sniffing curiously, before something hissed loudly and android jumped back a little. Nines was more careful in his moves, scanning the thing in the cage for safe distance.

“What did you locked in there? Tasmanian devil?” Hank bended over to look what all this fuss was about. There was a curled _something_ in there, shaking nervously. When Anderson came closer he saw a dark fur and a pair of dark eyes… or rather a one regular eye and one glowing blue and broken. When creature turned its head, it revealed a long scars on one half. Some naked wires emerged from underneath the scars.

“Fucking android _ferret_? This is bat shit crazy – who would’ve need that?” Gavin scoffed, fixing his eyes on furry tin can noodle. This thing had a scared glance in its healthy eye and mad expression in other one. Reed couldn’t help but shiver a little at the sight of it. Someone created this plastic noodle just for it to be broken? People were already doing something similar with real animals, they didn’t need to do the same with metal ones. Great job humanity, not being able to manage dealing with creatures that are actually _alive_ and bringing plastics that mimic them to the world, what for? They may abandon everything and hug their fridges as well.

“I believe the city department of sanitation and gardening has some to help them maintain all the hard to reach places. They reported a couple of them missing, this one included.” Ben answered and Reed focused on ferret’s collar with a tag “Ralph” on it and a bunch of numbers – Gavin assumed it was its serial number. The ferret was clinging on to something, chewing a piece of it tensely, resembling a hamster. Very stressed up, long hamster. Gavin came closer to inspect that, but Hank who was standing next to the cage already gave away what it was.

“Jesus, is that a dead rat?” He hold his breath, blinking rapidly and taking a few steps back.  
Reed ignored Hank’s tantrum and focused on something else flashing between ferret’s teeth. It was so dirty that it was hard to distinguish it from anything else, but there was some pink pattern on it. A thorn piece of fabric?

“It have a piece of something. Haven’t you tried to take it?” He pointed at the cage. Connor was still trying to step closer to locked android, even if ferret was panicking more and more. Gavin couldn’t really see the reason behind it and realised that Nines was already looking around, head held up and sniffing rapidly. At least his terminator didn’t waste time.

“Yeah, well the officers who were catching this thing ended up bitten, scratched and even _pissed_ by this blue liquid that droids have inside, and one almost got his fingers bitten off, so… nobody was willing to try.” Ben shook his head, giving ferret a glance with revulsion that was reserved for pests. Ralph curled himself even more, hiding his head between paws, possibly scarred by so many people (and androids) looking at him. This gave Connor a chance to go near ferret and focus on it. His sight became distant as his LED blinked yellow, processing some information while ferret let out a hushed squeak. Nines suddenly appeared next to Connor and his LED went yellow too. This non-verbal communication was giving Gavin creeps.

“Okay, can we talk to this bus controller guy..?” Hank turned himself from police car but Connor suddenly jumped and rushed down the street. Nines followed him immediately, quickly closing up the distance and then getting ahead his predecessor.

“Hey! Where are you going?” Lieutenant shouted, but both dogs were already far gone.

“To do some work, finally” Gavin was already on his way, running after the androids. God, did CyberLife put some V8 in them or what? Who was he kidding, knowing this company they could do that. He heard a grumpy sigh behind him, Hank obviously in pain at the very thought of moving his old ass.

“At least wait for me you dipshits!” Reed was barely able to keep up with them as they sprinted through the street, Connor dodging police car that was driving right into their direction and Nines actually jumping on the roof of it and then jumping off on the other side. Fucking show off..! Detective’s chest began to hurt from rapid breaths he was making. Okay, maybe he shouldn’t be laughing at Anderson for not being in shape. Luckily both furry race cars stopped at one building, an old house, a hovel really, with boarded up windows and the plaster coming off the walls.

“Phck..!” Gavin mumbled under his breath, bending over and resting hands on his thighs. He tilted his head and wanted to let out some curses in Nines’ general direction, but his tin can was just entering the building through a hole in one of the walls, Connor following him.

“W-what was that all about?” Hank trotted towards them, but Reed was already crouching to go after dogs.

“There is a fucking _door_ , you know.” Lieutenant pointed to the rightful entrance, boarded up with a single wooden plank, but it could be easily pulled out.

“Just wait here while others do all the work as always.” Detective scoffed, crawling into a house. Everything here was dirty and covered with a thick layer of dust, so it was easy to conclude that nobody was here in a long time. Or was it? Connor started sniffing curiously while he slowly moved to the space under the stairs. Gavin stood up, stretching his back. He could already hear some rumbling around the door and Hank spilling some orders. By the time they go there, Reed will find something for sure. Or, that was the plan, but Nines charged forward, completely ignoring Connor’s attempts at being subtle with their searching. Connor cocked his head, glaring over newer android, like he was saying:  
“What the actual fuck?”  
Nines stuck his muzzle under some canvas that were hanging under the stairs and out of nowhere he started barking aggressively.

“What is wrong with you now? Shut the fuck up before you alarm everyone in the five mile radius!” Detective grabbed his android’s collar and dragged him away from stairs. Connor whined somewhere around them as they heard the sound of ripping from the door. The party was just getting started.

“I swear to God, I’m gonna tape your stupid mouth shut..!” Gavin was struggling with Nines when suddenly something flashed in front of them, jumping from under staircase. Connor whined again but Nines ripped from his owner’s grab with such a force that Reed ended up on his ass. Brunet only managed to see a glimpse of little girl and a pale dog, Nines running after them to the back of the house. As to add to the Gavin’s embarrassment, in this exact moment the door opened with Hank’s kick. Anderson scanned the environment, stopping at Detective sitting on the floor.

“Doing some work I see. Are you having a picnic or what?” Hank snapped, crossing his arms.

“Fuck off, our missing brat is running away!” Reed went on his legs, while Connor ran to Lieutenant, barking and pulling him by the sleeve.

“And you asshole let her go? Great job Reed… Okay, okay Connor, I’m coming already!” He let himself get dragged out of the building. Gavin didn’t have time for this shit – he went outside as well, running past Hank, bumping his shoulder to Anderson on his way out. They could fuck around all day, but Reed was determined to catch this little punk. He started running again, going to the back garden of the building. Nines was already galloping in the back alley, disappearing around the corner. Gavin hushed a litany of curses that all sounded shaky because of him trying to keep up. He noted to himself to start working out more or this metal jackass would be the end of him both mentally and physically. Especially when Connor passed him with ease. Reed felt burning in his lungs already but continued to speed up as much as he could. The officers around were all giving him a questioning look, but he was too focused on moving his legs to care. One cop finally proved that he don’t have hay for the brain and pointed to the back street.

“They went there!” After that Gavin made a narrow turn, seeing Connor and Nines before him and little girl already sliding from the fence on the other side, her dog yapping and pulling her down.

“ Wait! We want to help you! Don’t go there!” He shouted as he saw the busy highway before them. Come on, this kid couldn’t be _that_ stupid, could she?

“Hey, stop!” He repeated but Alice only gave him one terrified look and turned on her heel, rushing to the edge of highway. Connor and Nines stopped at the fence, both barking. Girl jumped over the railing, ignoring flashing signs informing about the danger, her dog just behind her, shivering heavily. Fuck, fuck, _PHCK _! This brat was just asking for death to come to her.__

“Goddamn Reed, you’re no better than this hothead dogs..!” Hank caught them at least, panting much more than younger man. “Oh fuck me..!” He mumbled when he saw Alice and Kara entering the highway. They both looked like they have no clue what are they doing but went forward anyway, while cars passed them.

“Leave the pleasures for later, now we have to stop them!” Gavin grabbed the fence, shaking his head in disbelief. Connor and Nines both moved away and started dashing to the fence, jumping over it.

“NO!” Gavin and Hank called their androids out. Connor turned around, looking confused but stood in place. Nines however…

“GET YOUR PLASTIC ASS HERE, YOU PRICK!” Detective started shaking the fence so strongly that it almost breaking it.

“Shit Reed, call your stupid dog off!” Anderson caught Connor when the dog jumped back to them, staring at highway with fearful expression.

“Not sure if you’d noticed, but this bastard doesn't listen to me!”

“Well do something before you’ll have an android pancake!”

“Fuck you, I will.” Reed climbed on the fence and jumped over it. What was wrong with everyone today? To have one insane kid and _two_ insane androids in one place, what a joy. Also, nice of Anderson to care ‘bout the tin cans but not for the girl… even if she was already half way in the busy road and more people here meant more possibilities for and accident. Fuck it!

“Heel or something! HEY!” Nines ignored his owner completely, not that it surprised Gavin at this point. Alice was so clumsy in her walk that it was a miracle that not a single car have hit her yet, maybe because of her dog dragging her along. Gavin could hear girl’s screams between the sounds of speeding cars and their horns. He went onto the road himself, feeling the wind as the cars have passed around him. His heart was beating heavily against his chest, blood rushing through his veins. Nines was already close to Alice, barking rapidly and that caused the girl to froze in place. If not for her dog pushing her, a truck would’ve easily run over her. A low pitched car horn cracked the air, schooling them for being idiots. Fuck, he had to get to them immediately, before something would crash onto them already. He dashed ahead, ignoring vehicles flashing before and behind him, just to close his distance to them. Most of the cars were self-driving, so their sensors allowed them to dodge Reed even in tough situations; however there was one “normal” car and the driver honked on Gavin, like Detective could do something about a car rushing towards him 70 miles per hour.

“PHCK!” Reed made an awkward jump back, landing on his ass for the second time today. The force from all vehicles passing him made it hard to stand on his feet. Alice and Kara were about to exit the highway already and Gavin was the one needing help, how embarrassing. Nines snapped his head back at the sound of familiar curse, his LED blinking with crimson red. A two opposite objectives flashed before his eyes.  
 ** >>>>Catch Alice Williams and her android  
**  
 **> >>>Protect Gavin Reed  
**

Nines’ processors went overheat while he was trying to choose between them. He was built to always accomplish his mission but he was also supposed to take care of his owner. Nines’ scan revealed that Detective had 85% chance of survival but also 60% chance of injury. That was high numbers so the android turned to look at Alice and Kara crossing the fence at the other side…

…and then moved back to where Gavin was sitting.

“The fuck..?” Reed almost pushed his dog away before he realised it was him. Nines caught Detective’s jacket and made him stood up. Gavin however was still focused on the girl and her android. They lost them like idiots, bravo. At least they were safe, but…

“Shit!” Reed lost his train of thought when he had to jump to the side to avoid a motorcycle. “Roadhog!” He shouted, but Nines was already dragging him further, a furrow on dog’s face caused by Reed’s stubbornness.

“I’m going, I’m fucking going!” Now there was a spectacular failure if he ever saw one. Anderson won’t shut the fuck up about it, Gavin was sure.

“Let me go, I can walk by myself!” Nines was clinging to him so heavy that Reed had problems with taking proper steps. So even this metal pup thought Reed was too stupid to do anything by himself.

“Why you never listen, you dense…” And as just to prove that, Nines pulled his human so franticly that Detective instinctively jerked his arm back, ripping his sleeve (seriously, this terminator owned him a new jacket) and tripping over. Nines growled lowly and possibly with irritation. How could a little brat and her toy be so much coordinated than them? And they were practically at the end of the road. Gavin heard another truck going at them and Nines body-slammed him out of the way. There was a high-pitched scratching sound but Detective already jumped to the deceleration lane, ending on all fours for a good moment. What a fucking day. Reed was breathing heavily, trying to calm himself down, even if he was mostly angry beyond belief. Something barked next to him and Gavin twisted himself just to let some of this anger out of him.

“Do you want to die asshole? Because if you want, I can take care of that!” He snapped, before looking at his insane canine. He choked on his other words, as he saw Nines limping. The right back of the android had a horizontal scratch, revealing a jointed skeleton underneath. Blue blood was slowly dripping from it, but Nines just tilted his head like nothing happened, not getting why his human looked even more upset.

“You fucking… Goddamn it..!” Gavin’s whole face went red as he looked at this plastic idiot. Of course this thing didn’t care if he got himself killed, because it was not alive. He could always get some spare parts and be repaired, couldn’t he? That was so easy. Stupid things made from flesh – they weren’t so lucky. This pack of nuts and bolts didn’t care what humans could think of this, if they felt sorry even if there was no real reason to do so. Maybe that was just the thing humans did, but Reed certainly wasn’t going to fell for it. And yet, he barely managed to keep his whole body from shivering.

“Fuck. You. Don’t you ever do that again.” He spitted, pointing at confused Nines. Gavin stood up and quickly moved away from there, leaving his tin can baffled. He was sure Nines will follow him anyway, as always.


	4. Chapter 4

_”What is this?” Gavin stood, clinging to the door frame. His eyes were widen from a shock and he rubbed them to convince himself that his not just seeing things. But no matter what he did, he was still looking at the same thing, even if his brain was telling him that this was simply impossible._

_“Can’t you tell?” Elijah gently lifted the black and white cat that was sleeping on his lap. The cat itself looked bored and slightly annoyed that someone interrupted his nap, even if Eli was staring at the animal with a mixture of excitement and relief. Older boy then focused on Gavin, inviting him to come closer, with a pride in his gaze. He was smiling sheepishly, like he was waiting for a praise but didn’t want to admit that. Gavin however was staying still, unable to move. What he was looking at exactly?_

_“Come on, it’s Mr Igbert. You know him.” Elijah finally said, clearly upset by the lack of any response from his half-brother._

_“No. No it isn’t.” Gavin whispered, feeling his throat dry. He gulped but it didn’t help at all. “He is dead. I saw… I saw dad burring him in the backyard.” He added more firmly, but seeing this… thing that looked like a Igby’s spitting image, yawning like him, twitching his ear like him, purring like him made Gavin anxious. It was like seeing ghost, but this ghost was actually here._

_“Yeah, I know.” Eli gently patted the cat, his hand shaking slightly, like he didn’t want to let this furball go from his lap, ever. Both boys were aware of the fact that things die eventually, they were seeing it on TV, internet, on distant relatives funerals. But there was a difference between funeral of an old aunt that they saw maybe three times total and a funeral of a pet that was an everyday part of life. And it’s not like they didn’t see that Mr Igbert was growing old; it was all the small thing like not stealing things from Gavin’s plate, not jumping on Eli’s desk to drop things from it and generally just sleeping all day. Maybe adults thought they didn’t notice, but come on – they had this cat all their lives, of course they would notice. But the decision to put him down still hit like a truck._

_“But look, I took all of our records from phones and camera to study them, read a ton about advanced mechatronics and feline physiology, seriously I took forever to get through all of it…” Elijah shrugged his shoulders, smirking slightly. One look at the cat sitting on him was enough to feel like it was all worth it._

_“It IS Igby, I made sure to be exact to every little detail, and to recreate his personality… This little bastard even sharpens his claws on the same spots. Just don’t tell my mom he already ruined her sofa… again. I’ll patch it up later.” He let out a nervous laugh. Gavin’s gaze shifted from his half-brother to the cat. The more he looked at all of this the more angry he became. He never felt the urge to kick an animal before, and he was constantly getting into fights with other kids. But then again, this wasn’t an animal. Gavin wasn’t really sure what was it to be honest._

_“Come on Gav, give him a try.” Elijah encouraging his brother again with a gesture of a hand. He was itching for some response from Gavin, anything really. After all, he did all of it for both of them. Gavin remained silent for a long moment and Eli was just opening his mouth to say something when younger boy suddenly burst with outrage.  
“What is wrong with you?! Are you really such a fucking idiot?!” He yelled, his hands clenched into fists. Elijah jumped on his chair, taken aback by Gavin’s fury and by using the F word._

_“W-what is wrong with me? What is wrong with you, I… I gave us Igby back..!” He shouted in confusion, holding the cat closer like he was afraid Gavin could did something to him. And he worked so hard to make him alive again..!_

_“NO! Igby is dead, don’t you get it?! Whatever… this is, it’s NOT Igby! I don’ care if it looks like him or it acts like him… Igby was one-of-a-kind furry asshole and nothing could ever replace it!” Gavin threw his hands into the air, waving with them aggressively. This was beyond being stupid. And he thought his mom was dumb enough to suggest having a new cat, she just didn’t understand it wasn’t possible to just fill the hole in his heart with some random cat. But Elijah? He knew Mr Igbert as well as Gavin – and still he chose to spit on his image with this abomination?_

_“I’m not replacing him, it IS Igby in every sense of the word except his body is not organic. But HE doesn’t know it so why does it matter?” He snapped as he couldn’t wrap his head around Gavin’s anger._

_“It DOES matter to me! This is the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard! You’re supposed to be so smart asshole and you did that shit?!” Gavin eventually came closer and shouted right into Eli’s face. His brother shivered but Gavin could see that he still didn’t get it. This bastard was so smug with this plastic toy and to think that Gavin covered for him whenever he locked himself in his room to work on something and to not see anyone… Fuck him and his stupid ideas._

_“Stop yelling, you’re scaring him..!” The cat flattened his ears to his head and twisted himself, hiding his head under Elijah’s arm. “You idiot, I’ve done it mostly for you, you’re impossible to deal with since we had to put his old self down..!” He shook his head, looking Gavin directly into eyes. Gavin gasped and took a few steps back. Okay, Igbert’s death hit him hard and maybe he was coping with it by snarling at anybody and braking some noses… But he was slowly starting to live with it and just as he made some progress Eli came with his stupid tin can and fucked it up._

_“Stop it. Just stop it!” Gavin covered his ears in a childish way, not wanting to hear any more bullshit from Elijah._

_“This Igby will never grew old or get sick… So we never have to go through it again.” Eli looked at his brother with a concern. Gavin was always stubborn like a mule and didn’t want any help but it was clear he needed it. And Elijah never wanted to go through something like in past few weeks again._

_“I said STOP IT!” Gavin didn’t even realise he had tears on his cheeks or that his vision was blurry._

_“Why can’t you just let him rest in peace?!” He snarled between occasional hiccups. It was him who had to let Igbert rest in peace and to finally let go all the sorrow that he couldn’t even admit was in him. If this thing was basically immortal and indestructible… What was the point of carrying about it anyway? It was just like Igby’s death didn’t matter at all and what’s worse – that his whole life didn’t matter at all. The thought of it send shivers down Gavin’s spine._

_“Gav…”_

_“This is just a piece of metal and to call it Igby… it’s disgusting! Have you got no shame?! No matter what you do, he’ll never be alive again!” He furiously wiped his eyes with his sleeve. “It doesn’t feel anything, it doesn’t know anything! But I’m not surprised – you’re always hiding from everything, treating this plastic Furbies like they are your friends… because you don’t have any!” Gavin slapped Elijah but his hands were too unsteady for that to really have a punch. Eli just shrunken in his seat, used to his brother’s temper tantrums._

_“But it won’t fool me, or anyone who knows what a life is about! Fuck you Eli, get this fucking thing out of my sigh or else..!” Gavin punched the air and Elijah bended even more, like he was trying to disappear completely. Before any of them could done something stupid Gavin just stormed out of his brother’s room and then went outside to take his bike and just go home._  
***

“Reed! REED! For God’s sake, this is getting ridiculous!” Gavin didn’t even slow down when he heard Hank’s voice. Like he was afraid that if he’s stop he would have to face his dog again. Anderson and his stupid pup caught up with them eventually, Lieutenant breathing so heavy that Gavin was almost tempted to dial 911 just in case this old fucker has decided to kick the bucket now. And that would be difficult to explain to Fowler for sure. Connor however immediately went to Nines and started scanning him, so Reed guessed that Hank wasn’t dying just yet. Gavin stopped with a sigh, patting his pockets in the search of cigarettes. As much as Reed wanted to tease Anderson, it was better to let him catch his breath and just mock him about it later. Fuck he needed to smoke, his hands were shaking. When he finally lit the cigarette up he could hear Connor’s whining.

“Oh f-fuck… that was… fuckin’ insane… Christ! W-who told ya this… this was a fucking Roadrunner cartoon?!” Hank bended in half, supporting himself by holding hands on his thighs. It took him a good while to calm down. 

“I know this must be new to you, but people sometimes run… It’s when you move your legs fast, useful when you’re chasing someone, really.” Gavin lifted his head and let out a puff to the sky. 

“Bite me.” Anderson groaned, flipping Gavin off, even if younger man was not facing him. Connor cried again and in attempt of drawing Hank’s attention he licked his hand before returning to Nines.

“What’s up boy?” Hank finally came closer to his dog, still panting a little from all of the jogging he had to do today. And then he saw the damaged side of Nines and stopped half way. Connor was circling around RK900, LED changing between yellow and red but every time he went too close Nines was shooting him a warning look, so older model just looked at Hank for some help. White dog didn’t seem to care about his wounds at all and neither did his owner.

“Fuck! I knew this will end like that! Gavin, have you seen it?” He pointed to Nines, grabbing Reed’s shoulder and turning him around so he would face his android. Gavin only let out a small cloud of smoke from his lips and crossed his arms.

“Yeah, this asshole didn’t listen to me so here we are. It’s not like he can feel pain or even know that he did something wrong.” He spat with an annoyance. Anderson opened his mouth for a moment, looking like a fish out of water and then for the second time today he caught Reed’s collar and lifted him a little.

“It’s all your fault you prick! You should do something!”

“I went after this crazy bitch and almost got run over – what else did you expect me to do?! To extent my arms like a fuckin’ Inspector Gadget and take him out of there?” Gavin lifted a hand with a cigarette and held it right next to Hank’s face. Nines was already next to them, showing his teeth; Connor was focused on him, looking both concerned and careful for every signs of aggression.

“Fuck, you both could… Fuck.” Anderson shook his head, his anger slowly mixing with worry and realisation that this could end much worse. “You’re both shitheads” He murmured, letting Gavin go. Nines chilled out a bit, sitting still so he didn’t have to stand on his damaged leg.

“Whatever.” Reed put the cigarette in his mouth and took a puff. Anderson could think he was a failure for letting this girl and her tin can go, but at the very least he _did_ something, nobody could say that he didn’t try… not that it mattered. After all, Fowler wanted a results, not just attempts at them if Reed ever wanted to get that promotion. However Hank let out a hardly covered growl and turned on his heel, probably before he will jump at Gavin to really beat his suicidal plans out of younger man. 

“We’re going to my place. Now.” It wasn’t a suggestion, it was an order. 

“The fuck you’re talking about right now?” Reed didn’t move from his spot. Anderson was acting fucking strange today and Gavin couldn’t figure him out. It just added to his annoyance. 

“I said: we’re going to my place. Your dog needs help.” He said through a clenched teeth. He _will_ punch Reed today, he was already sure of that. The question was more _when_ than _if_.

“I’m not sure if this is a senile dementia or what but in case you forgot… This things can be easily fixed in CyberLife. And you’re NOT an android Jesus, even if you’d like to think so.”

“Listen up fuckhead” Hank was again tense and almost touching Gavin, pointing to his chest. “In case you forgot, you’re on a trial run with your dog. And you’ve damaged him on your very first field mission. You really want to go to the official institution with him?” He said on one breath, almost grinding his teeth.

“Okay, I fucked it up! Is that what you wanted to hear?! I’ll never be as fucking perfect as you and your damn Fido!” Reed waved with his arms, almost dropping the ash on Lieutenant. Lovely, the Great and Powerful Anderson could just be drunk out of his mind and sit on his ass while Gavin was running and trying his best, but it was always Hank who got the praise. Fucking not fair.

“At least we went after this girl while you and your stupid plastic were just playing “stay”… but I know how this works – we didn’t actually caught them, so fuck us right?! You can tell Fowler whatever you want, I’ll find this little brat and kick you out of DPD, so you’ll have all the fucking time in the world to play with your toy!” Reed shifted his weight so he wasn’t so close to Hank. This whole situation was ridiculous. 

“You dense motherfucker, this isn’t some kind of competition! I’m trying to help you, but I swear to God, you’re impossible to work with!” Lieutenant had to hold his hands together because otherwise he would punch Gavin already. Connor has practically wrapped himself around his owner’s leg, glancing nervously at Nines who started tensing up again. 

“Why would you ever want to help me? In fact, why are you so eager to help me today anyway? You think I can’t handle this metal pupper?”

“I’ve already told you – I’m more concern about the dog! And I… I don’t want you to be as much of an idiot as I was! Or maybe I still am, ‘cause I’m still trying to talk some sense into you!” He turned his head to look at Nines, his blue blood still dripping from his wound. Reed gave older man a look but he also focused on his dog for a second. He must admit that even when he knew Nines didn’t feel anything or bother at all, seeing him like that was… painful itself. Maybe that’s why he was so hesitant to properly fix his eyes on Nines – the only one who felt the weight of that was Gavin. And apparently also Hank.

“They can regenerate themselves, but they need to fill in Thirium. I got some at home… just in case.” Anderson was clearly timid with this confession. Or at least it sounded like one, even if Reed didn’t know what he was talking about. In case of what? Connor having a leak?

“They need what now?” He asked instead.

“You know, blue blood. They can shut down if its level is too low.” Lieutenant’s voice was serious as he lowered his head to focus on Connor. “Don’t ask why I know that.” He added, trying to sound more casually. Gavin just nodded in agreement – he didn’t want to know. He dropped the rest of his cigarette and put the light out with his heel. Hank just shrugged off and turned himself around. Connor turned his head, baffled for a second but he took the chance to get close to Nines who seemed not as murderous now that Lieutenant walked away from detective Reed . RK900 only slouched like he wanted to disappear. Connor slowly stepped towards younger android, almost looking like he was sneaking his way. Gavin was considering smoking another cigarette just to occupy his mind with something when he saw Nines jumping and almost falling over in panic.

“What the… Anderson, did your fucking dog just LICKED mine?!” Reed pointed at Connor, his muzzle stained with blue blood and goofy look on his face. Both androids appeared equally shocked and confused, Connor’s LED yellow and analysing and Nines steady red. 

“Connor, no! Bad boy, we’ve talked about that!” Hank dashed and pulled his android back. He wanted to scold him more, but Connor’s puppy eyes were always winning.

“Shit, I knew you were a weirdo, but your plastic too..?” Despite everything Gavin leaned over Nines to see if he’s okay. Nines seemed like he just found out his mother was a Roomba but overall fine.

“He just do it to analyse shit… “

“Sure, it doesn’t have any signs of bad touch at all..!”

“Don’t ask me what bat shit crazy fucker put it in there. And why he wants to lick every blood drop he comes across… Someone in CyberLife has serious issues.”

“The whole CyberLife has serious issues.”

“Well, can’t argue with that.” Anderson shook his head. Connor gave him worried look, glancing over to Nines.

“Still, if you want to be a dick about it, you have to rely on them to fix your pet. I personally wouldn’t trust them to take care of a pet rock, but whatever.” He added.

“Yeah, I’m not so found of them either.” Reed hated to admit it, but he had to agree with Anderson on this one. They would most likely fill some kind of report too and he didn’t like that. Nines was staring at him, not really knowing what’s going on. Now which one of them was more dense about this whole situation?

“I’m going home anyway, if they took the train it’s not much we can do and not look like a chickens running with their heads chopped off. We’ll find them eventually.” Hank took a sip from a small bottle from his inside pocket. Both Gavin and Connor gave him a disappointing look.

“Lovely visualisation.” Reed scoffed. “Isn’t it a little too early to get drunk?”

“It’s just a tea you prick, I almost coughed my lungs out today, so give me some slack.” He murmured but as younger man and his own dog were still judging him silently, he added: “Okay, it has one shot of whiskey in it, fuck you.”

“Sure. One.” Gavin made quotation marks gesture on the word “one”.

“You’re coming or not smartass?” Lieutenant took another sip and shoot a look over his shoulder. 

“I don’t need your pity.” Detective snarled but he wasn’t as furious as before. Maybe that’s because adrenaline wasn’t pumping in him so much anymore.

“You don’t. But him, it’s a different story.” He shrugged his shoulders and went into an alley, Connor following him even if he was was constantly turning his head to check if Nines and Gavin are coming after them. Reed counted to ten to calm himself down and then he moved too. It’s not like he had better choice. Nines joined him soon, limping a bit and struggling to keep up. Maybe the Thirium loss wasn’t that severe but it still crippled his hydraulics in that one limb. Gavin rolled his eyes but he picked up his android, amazed by the fact that he was much lighter than he would’ve expected. Nines let out a surprised gasp and he fixed a confused look at his owner, scanning him for some reason. Detective mumbled some curses under his breath and he continued to refuse looking at RK900. It was all this stupid plastic’s fault, he was trying to stop him… But as he said before – the road to hell is paved with good intentions. It didn’t matter what he was trying to do, he still failed miserably and his android was hurt. This fucker may not give a fuck, but he still felt guilty whenever he caught a glimpse of dripping blue blood. First Nines was tense like a string, not sure what to do, his LED spinning when he tried to understand Gavin’s train of thought but when he got nothing he loosen up a little. Which was still tense, but not as much. Eventually he laid his head on Reed’s arm, maybe to hide his spinning LED. Detective acted like he didn’t notice it at all.

“You’re not driving you alky, I’m taking the wheel.” Reed simply stated.

“Oh hell no. But I’d like to see you try.” Connor barked as he was backing Hank up.  
***  
“Okay, just let me… Connor wait! Hey!” Hank barely got to open the door with Connor jumping like a rubber ball next to him – as soon as the door were out of way, Connor dashed inside, barking happily. Gavin only rolled his eyes, still holding Nines, even if wounded canine could walk this little distance himself; maybe he just wanted it to go as quickly as possible or maybe he just got used to do it that way. Anderson got to be a driver anyway, when Reed finally decided to let it go because in all seriousness – they almost got to a fistfight and this was becoming too common for them. At least he agreed to turn his hellish music off or else Gavin could jump of the moving car himself. Hank quickly followed his dog and Reed went after him, opening the door with a light kick. Lieutenant was almost immediately approached by Connor and another dog – a Saint Bernard that from all Reed could tell was a real dog. Both canines were looking like yin and yang – android being the fluffy ball of excitement and energy while real pup was stoic and calm, although waving his tail for his human. Connor was jumping at other dog, yapping playfully and bumping onto him and Saint Bernard remained chill about it, just sniffing all new scents from android.

“Sit you bastards.” Hank sounded grumpy but there was such a warmth in his voice that it was hard to take it as a reprimand. Reed huffed, not really here for all this diabetes-giving scenes, so he scanned the house. From Hank he expected some trashy place, covered in empty bottles and takeout boxes, like an old drunk cop that Anderson was… and well, he was right with a boxes but the house was surprisingly cozy and clean otherwise. Sure it was rather small and filled with outdated (Hank probably would call them “classic”)shit like paper books and vinyls, but it sort of suited Lieutenant. Saint Bernard curiously went to the Detective and his tin can but only sniffed them patiently. 

“Take that mountain of hair away from me, would ya?” Reed snapped and Hank whistled at the dog who nonchalantly went to his owner. Nines quiet whine made Gavin return to reality. Right, this blue shit refill. Nines was trying to escape from the moment they got out of Hank’s car. Reed didn’t really get what was his fucking problem, maybe this hellhound couldn’t cope with a concept of being wounded and needing any assistance from something as fragile as human? To be honest, Gavin wasn’t comfortable with this as well but it was mostly because he didn’t know a thing about those metal fuckers so he didn’t have any idea how severe this was for Nines. He only knew what to do with living things and his android wasn’t doing him any favours by not acting like one at all. But how could Nines know that? He was most likely as irritated with Reed as human was with him.

“Just sit on your shiny metal ass.” Detective put his dog on the ground – tin can could be light but it was getting awkward. Nines just gave him questioning look but sat anyway.

“Hey, don’t put him on the carpet!” Anderson shoot an eye over his shoulder and just sighed, letting his hand through his hair. “Great, now Connor will be sniffing that blue blood for a good week or so.” As just to confirm Hank’s words, Connor barked and focused on Nines again, running a brief scan of younger android just to check his condition. Nines hold Connor’s gaze but turned himself to cover his scratched side.

“You said this shit evaporates in hours. And I don’t see any on your carpet, it looks like you never clean it anyway.” Gavin tapped his foot, annoyed. He’d like to just be over with this already. At least Nines’ scratch wasn’t really bleeding anymore; rapid healing was something to envy and Reed wished to have something like that to save him some scars. Still, his skin hasn’t completely covered a horizontal mark on his side and he had problems with moving one leg. Hopefully refiling the liquid in his system could fix that now that the leak was gone.

“Yeah, but they can detect it for much longer. Nevermind.” 

“It’s more like you have a pretty kinky droid to be honest.”

“Mine listens when I tell him not to try killing himself.” Okay, Reed didn’t have a compelling argument for that so he flipped Hank off. Lieutenant walked to the kitchen, his dogs following him closely. Reed mumbled something like “stay” to Nines and leaned on the kitchen wall. Of course Nines was immediately next to him, but it wasn’t like Gavin cared if Connor had more stains to sniff around the house. For some reason Anderson opened his fridge, searching for something while his dogs were practically going into the fridge. Despite everything Detective couldn’t help but chuckle a little at this – how many times his cats were climbing on him and meowing loudly whenever he just wanted to grab himself a beer? Or was just standing near the fridge?

“Okay, okay, you’ll get something too! Fucking beggars…” In record time Hank grabbed something that resembled a hot dog and a bottle with blue liquid inside. Reed caught a glimpse of CyberLife logo on it. There were two bowls on the other side of the kitchen, one saying “Connor” and another saying “Sumo”. Obviously hot dog went to Sumo’s bowl and some Thirium to android’s. Both pets gladly dashed to their treats (well – Connor dashed, Sumo was more like a tank, almost knocking the chair out of his way) and Hank handed over a plate with the rest of the Thirium to Gavin.

“So, I could’ve just bought it?”

“Yeah, but they do keep a records at official stores. And you’re welcome prick.” Anderson crossed his arms, frowning at Reed’s attitude. “Well, it’s not an appetizer for you princess, give it to him.”

“I’m just suspicious at any drinks from you.” Gavin put the plate in front of Nines before adding: “And yeah… thanks I guess.” 

“Did you just said _thanks_? Well fuck, Hell just frozen, I need a drink for that.” Hank returned to the fridge but Reed was too occupied with Nines to care.  
The android gave the bowl a puzzled look, shifting his eyes between it and both humans before he finally took a hesitant sip. Reed watched nervously as his tin can consumed the blue blood – Nines’ LED was spinning with yellow, analysing his Thirium level until he gulped all of it. Nines stood perfectly still for a long moment and Gavin thought something was wrong but then Nines shook himself as he was trying to get himself dry. His LED flickered blue before settling on steady colour. Nines stretched his legs with ease and his synthetic skin covered a joint on his hip. Reed let out a breath that he wasn’t aware he was holding. Fucking finally! 

“Don’t look at me like that, I’m still mad at you.” He murmured but it wasn’t as harsh as he thought. Nines gave him a small wave of the tail, like he wasn’t sure how to express… something. Gratitude? Mission accomplished? Not really, they fucked it up. Connor approached Nines with a small thing in his mouth and he put it next to younger android. It was a colourful fish plushie with many bite marks and stains on it. This toy was certainly loved… in a way.

“The fuck is it?” Gavin pointed at stuffed animal. Nines also looked confused so Connor picked up the plushie and squizzed it lightly. It squeaked softly and RK900 cocked his head, trying to get any sense of that. Then Connor put the toy on the ground again, shoving it at Nines’ front paws.

“Hey, that’s Connor’s favourite toy, so your terminator better not chomp it at half!” Hank shouted, opening himself a beer. Gavin run a hand through his hair, irritated.   
“Why do you think my plastic would need that stupid, dirty…”

_Squeak_.

Reed couldn’t believe it. CyberLife’s most advanced prototype held a bright fish toy with his teeth, looking incredibly lost. This scenario wasn’t included in references and preconstructions for sure. Connor barked, maybe to encourage his successor, but it resulted in Nines clutching his teeth and toy squeaking loudly which made Nines jump. Gavin burst out laughing at that scene. If someone has told him he will be at Hank’s home looking at Anderson’s robo pup giving his own android some squeaky fish… Gavin would’ve advised them to stop smoking red ice. Still smirking, Reed took the toy from Nines who was glad to get rid of it.

“Give me that before you brake it and Anderson will kill me for upsetting his doggo.” He tossed it away and Connor moved at once, catching it gracefully. 

“I’m still considering this option.” Hank gulped his beer, scratching Sumo behind the ear, even if dog was drooling on his leg, waiting for another treat.

“And I’m still trying to find out why are you helping me at all. You hate my guts and well, the feeling’s mutual.” Gavin casually took one of the vinyls laying on the self. He never had an opportunity to see one of those in real life.

“I hate you, sure, but I just remember how many fuck ups I had with Connor, I mean those things are pretty crazy… I don’t want you to repeat them, that’s all.” Hank said firmly and just threw his empty bottle to a trash can.

“Whatever, I’m not destined to repeat all your mistakes, God help me.” Reed put the vinyl back. Most of them were jazz which was interesting – Gavin would’ve guessed more rage-filled heavy metal.

“Hopefully, that’s why I even bother.”

“Saint Anderson of android dogs, who would’ve thought.” Detective shrugged before glancing to Nines. He seemed better now and that’s what was important. Gavin still didn’t liked this old drunk and his plastic pet the truth was he could understand that they were in similar situation as he and Nines, fucking lost in this unfamiliar territory. This didn’t mean Gavin would pass on the chance to be better than them – he _knew_ he can be much better. 

“But I think… Hey! I don’t have anything for you mutt..!” After not getting anything more from Hank, Sumo went to Gavin, putting his moist muzzle into Reed’s hand.

“Language, this is a purebred that you’re looking at.” Anderson sounded way too much entertained by Gavin’s attempts at escaping Sumo.

“I phckin’ hate dogs…” He snapped, trying to wipe his hand on his jeans.


	5. Chapter 5

“This is just stupid” Gavin tucked his head in his hood further. It was raining cats and dogs and of course he had to be outside, going in circles and getting absolutely nothing. Fucking Detroit, beautiful as always. This part of the city always looked gloomy and the weather wasn’t doing it any favours. All old buildings that were once impressive but now they were just a reminder that things changed and they haven’t aged well. Not matching new Detroit at all, this was a place of sad reality. Ghost of old glory if you will – this was accurate because the whole suburbs looked like something straight from thriller with all the rain and fog creeping in the distance. Reed was more and more frustrated by the lack of results. All they knew was that Alice caught the train and ended up somewhere around here – but where exactly? She couldn’t just vanish like that unless there _was_ someone else involved in all of that.

“Well _you_ wanted to take another lap around, personally I would’ve get the hell out of there already.” Tina shivered from the cold. They were searching since the morning and despite all Gavin’s whining and scoffing he still was determined to find something, _anything_ about Alice Williams and her android dog. Speaking of which…

“How are you doing? With… this I mean.” She pointed to slim dog figure, barely visible because all the downpour. Gavin glanced over Nines, rolling this question in his mind.

“Not as bad as I thought, I guess.” He shrugged. “I mean, it’s still weird as fuck but I’ve done worse things.”

“Seriously?” Tina gave him a look but smirked anyway. “You’re going to be the next Anderson?” She teased.

“I’d rather die first.” He gritted his teeth, more from the cold than from anger.

“I’ve heard you two are pretty civil nowadays.” If Gavin made Tina walk in the rain than she thought that he deserved a little mocking. “I mean you don’t just jump at each other throats… well not as much as you used to. Having a plastic pup do bring people together I guess.” She winked. Reed gave her a disapproving look, frowning his eyebrows.

“Okay, okay, don’t give me this murdering look. It’s actually nice not having to cringe whenever you two are in the same room.” She looked at her phone and sighed heavy. It was already late. “Listen, I know you really wanted to find something, but it’s no use. We need more information, obviously.”

“Come on, she couldn’t disappeared into a thin air.” Reed’s teeth started chattering, but he just crossed his hands around himself. “The camera caught her in a train station nearby and someone recognised her dog around here. If this android still had its tracker…”

“This is truly inconvenient… That trackers won’t work in malfunctioning androids.” Tina huffed, jumping over a particular wide paddle. “And your barking wonder can’t do something about it? I thought it was supposed to be a super cop or something; I’m surprised he don’t have a rocket launcher inside.”

“Yeah, me too.” Gavin was sure that Nines can get some clue but it seemed that even his state-of-the art android was lost. Reed was frustrated enough with himself, not being able to find one little girl but he could tell Nines was taking it even worse. His dog was sniffing around and getting into every corner, pipe or hole but there was nothing. Reed was hoping Nines was waterproof but if he was bulletproof it would be stupid if he wasn’t.

“It looks like this brat and her droid didn’t leave any tracks… which is not possible unless some UFO just beamed them up. But it means…”

“That someone covered the tracks? I don’t know. Even if her father suggested it, we never got any evidence that there was some third party involved. Maybe your tin can doesn’t know what to look for? I mean, it’s just a plastic…”

“Don’t call him that.” Gavin snapped before he could think about it.

“What? Why?” Tina tilted her head, confused.

“I… it’s not Nines’ fault that there is something fishy going on.” Reed ducked his head, suddenly very interested in his boots. Why was he even upset for someone calling Nines names? Maybe because he was already guilt tripping himself. Nines also seemed desperate to prove his worth after the failure on the highway and it was not easy to watch.

“Wow, okay. I was just trying to tell you it’s not your fault, so you can cheer up a little.” Tina rose her hands in peaceful gesture.

“Well, it’s not his either, that’s all.”

“Ooooh, I get it. You like your little pup..! I’m sorry then, I’ll give him… a metal bone? Or some oil?” She seemed a little shocked at the realisation but she quickly laughted.

“Fuck you, we’re getting out of there.” Gavin turned on his heel and whistled for Nines to return. Why did he get so irritated? It’s not like it was a crime that he… tolerated his android – it was highly appreciated even. Maybe that’s because he always talked how much he despised them and he was too stubborn for his own good.

“Finally!” Tina theatrically threw her hands into the air. “And hey… hey, I’m talking to you!” She picked up her pace to catch up with rumbling Gavin. “I got nothing against your dog and don’t worry, I’m not gonna tell anyone. You were always soft for animals, flesh and bones usually, but whatever.”

“Just shut up already.” Reed huffed, watching as Nines run towards him. This fucking plastic (only Gavin could call him that) had an expression of irritation and guilt written all over him and it wasn’t a pretty sight. Reed awkwardly patted his head, not knowing what to do, he was upset himself.

“Sure, I just… A-achoo!” Tina sneezed softly. Damn rain. Gavin only smirked, happy that they were heading to their car already.  
***

“So, this is where they entered the building?” Gavin looked over the big window frame. There used to be a glass, but it seems that it was pushed out with great force, glass shards now laying everywhere around.

“No, they _left_ through it. We’re still not sure who and how got here.” CyberLife employee crossed his arms, visibly upset by all Detective’s questions. They clearly wanted some answers now. After all, someone hacked into their building and stole their precious products… Or rather, their precious products just run from here.

“But you do have cameras here?” Reed pointed to one hanging from a ceiling. Come one, those CyberLife bastards had a thing for control and tracking everyone, they had to have some records.

“Yes, but they were all turned off during the… incident.” If the venom in this guy’s voice was real, Gavin would be dead. They sure didn’t like to admit that their giant of company could fail at any level. 

“They had a hacker good enough to neutralize them or they had a mole here.” Gavin happily poured more salt at this smartass and checked something on his phone just to ignore this prick.

“I can assure you we have many restrict rules to prevent such things from happening.”

“And yet, here we are.”

“Sir, I’m only telling you what we know. The cameras were turned off remotely before the attack and alarm only started ringing when they all escaped through this window. Nobody saw anyone other than our running products.” This prick was so stiff now, that Reed almost couldn’t keep straight face – only the corners of his mouth curled up a little. “Maybe let me show you around.” He added, turning himself before Gavin could add any witty comment. They were empty pedestals and shelfs everywhere – Reed assumed that’s where the androids were. Again, they weren’t many clues around, it seems like all the cages were just opened either by someone who knew the password or who hacked them without making an alarm. But if someone went through all that trouble, why in the holy fuck would they just get out by smashing the front window?

“That’s where we had our TW400, resembling a gorilla to handle heavy lifting and such, and this was a place for URS12, a polar bear since they are almost extinct now.” CyberLife employee said with a proud voice. Gavin shoved his hand into pockets, glancing over tight spaces of cages. He was well aware that those were androids, not real animals so they most likely didn’t mind, but it still rubbed him in a wrong way. And why on Earth did they need a fucking _polar bear_? By the same logic, they could’ve made an android T-Rex, they were extinct too. Wonder how well this could go. Fucking Jurassic Park.

“Do you have any suspicions about who might want to steal them _and_ had a knowledge and resources to do so?” He leaned to look at the interactive panel near the pedestal. There wasn’t any visible damage on it, but he couldn’t tell if someone was actually messing up with it.

“We don’t have any solid evidence but… there were some protests near some of ours facilities. Crazy hippie crowd, they mean well, although their actions don’t have any sense since they act like we’re hurting real animals… and those are androids, they simply don’t function the same.” He shrugged. “They never were violent in their ridiculous protests and I highly doubt they have enough knowledge about our company to hack us. If they had, they would knew how unfair and foolish this was.”

“Hmmm. Unfair, sure.” Reed came closer to this CyberLife guy, just to see him shrink before him. Okay, androids didn’t have all needs that all alive creatures had. Gavin always thought that those hippies were fucked up and well, he still stated that their actions didn’t have sense. Real animals were always in the need of something and it was not right to take attention from them to give it to plastic toys. But now that he had Nines he understood that it was easy to confuse the two “species”. And it was hard to think about any creature being held in some facility. They were made by humans, which meant this was entirely human’s fault for not knowing how to deal with them. 

“I’m sure you have everything perfectly in accordance with government regulations here, so those _stupid hippies_ or maybe some inspectors have nothing to yap about… right?” He said casually, liking the sight of panicking employee. This whole company was giving Reed a nasty feeling of corporate bullshit.

“Sir, we don’t have anything to hide. We just went through an official government audit.” Employee’s face reddened lightly, but he was still relatively calm. “And I believe you’re here to help us with this break-in, so if you could…”

“What is it Nines?” Gavin ignored this CyberLife shithead the second Nines went to him, barking and trying to get his attention. Nines quickly run deeper into the facility and Reed followed him. Gavin was pleased to leave the smartass employee behind. RK900 dashed to some kind of storeroom in the back. The sign said _employees only_ but since Reed was a Goddamn cop in the middle of investigation, he chose to ignore it.

“Hey, wait..!” The annoying guy shouted after them. Gavin looked around the storeroom, and if he wasn’t feeling that this place was creepy before, now he certainly felt it. They were many machines with long, slim arms – all with different “tools” attached to it. It reminded him a dentist chair, with a place for “patient” to sit, lamps above and all the tools that looked like torture devices. The treatment here was probably just as pleasant. There wasn’t much light here, so he helped himself with his phone. The worst part was that they were keeping all android parts here and it was giving Reed a serious dr. Frankenstein vibe. Limbs and plastic skeletons hanging in organised boxes, and empty non-alive eyes looking from skulls. Fuck, that was spooky. Gavin almost jumped when Nines barked again, irritated that his human wasn’t following him quick enough.

“And I thought watching how the hot dogs are made was hard to sit through…” He murmured, joining his dog. Good thing his tin can’s LED and collar were glowing in the dark. Nines was sitting by some vent and his LED was yellow, processing something. Gavin crouched next to him, focusing on the vent. They weren’t any signs of forced entry but Nines pointed at something on the floor.

“Screws, huh?” He picked up one tiny screw. After looking at the vent again, he could tell it was missing them. So, someone just went through the vent, gently unscrewed all of it, turned off the cameras, hacked the cages with the androids… and then said “screw it” and fucking stormed through the front window. Nines was still barking at something but Gavin wasn’t sure on what now.

“What do you want? I don’t fucking speak dog-android.” He mumbled. Nines almost looked like he will roll his eyes at his human dumbness. He licked a frame of the vent and his LED was flicking yellow again.

“Fucking great, Connor passed this stupid licking thing onto you.” Reed tried to see anything but it was no use – even if Nines has clearly seen _something_. Nines went to Gavin’s hand and human almost jumped back when his android clicked his teeth on it… or rather on his phone. 

“What the…” His phone was flooded with some data and soon it was displaying info on a sample of blue blood. Apparently it was from an PL600 android that went missing over two years ago. Huh.

“I’m sorry but… you shouldn’t really be here.” The CyberLife idiot was back, looking so baffled it was almost funny to look at. Gavin was sure this poor dipshit just fell off the company ladder that he was trying to climb by licking his bosses asses.

“Where do these vents go?” He simply asked.  
***

“Urghh…” Gavin just finished another coffee but it didn’t help him much at this point. Even if he was working overtime he couldn’t get anywhere with any of his cases. He glanced over a map on his panel but the more he looked at it the less he could actually see. The investigation on break-in in CyberLife facility was in a dead spot – they wasn’t any more clues other than a presence of other androids that weren’t in this facility at all. No traces of humans. Just what has happened here? The only good thing that came from it was that because all androids were set free at the same time, they all malfunctioned simultaneously. Before that, they’ve crossed some distance and their trackers went offline around the same area. Crossing that with some other androids missing, Gavin could at least attempt at thinking about a place where all the deviants were heading. The problem was, it was still a huge ass area around the docks. 

And he wouldn’t even have this much info if it weren’t for Nines scanning the area. Reed looked down at his android, laying next to his desk. This dog couldn’t even attempt at looking relaxed, but Gavin himself was pretty tense throughout last days. He got nothing on this case and also on Alice Williams’ missing. Fucking hell, he hated the feeling of chasing his own tail. It was already late and almost nobody was in the precinct but Reed was going by the sheer force of stubbornness. If he ever dreamed about ousting Anderson he have to have some results. But right now he was about to go for a smoke just to detach himself from a monitor, he could feel the headache coming already. He rubbed his eyes when a glimpse of sudden movement caught his attention. Nines stood up, picking his ears for something and stiffening in concentration. Gavin already knew his android wouldn’t react unless something was going on, so he followed Nines’ gaze. He was surprised to see Hank and his plastic pup still at the police station, yet alone heading towards the evidence room. The fuck was this old weirdo doing this time? Detective slowly stood up, trying not to make a sound while moving his chair.

“Come on, let’s see those two clowns are after.” Nines was immediately at his heel and they went right to the evidence room. While Anderson was struggling with a password to the door, Gavin casually leaned over the wall nearby, trying to look as smug as possible.

“Hey Anderson. It’s awful late to be at work when you’re not actually working, isn’t it?” 

“Jesus Christ..! I swear you want to give me a fucking heart attack..!” Hank jumped and snapped himself around. Connor also jumped even if he noticed Gavin almost immediately, most likely to match his owner’s surprise. 

“I guess that’s one way of getting rid of you.” Reed shrugged, realising how stupid he looks with one hand on the wall and another on his hip, like he was some stereotypical dickhead (that he sometimes was, but oh well). He coughed and stood straight. “But seriously, what are you doing here?”

“Can’t you just fuck off for once?” Hank almost growled. Connor was glancing over his owner sheepishly, knowing this won’t end up well.

“Not when you’re obviously sneaking up here. And I have the feeling that this is going to bite me in the ass somehow, so I’ll ask again – what _are_ you doing?”

“I’m just trying to resolve the case of missing androids and I think I have a pretty good idea how to do that. Go grab another coffee and let me do my job.” Anderson glanced over Reed, wanting to shoo him away as quickly as possible. “On the other hand, maybe just go home, more caffeine won’t do you any good.”

“That’s really rich, coming from an old drunkhead.” Gavin snapped, crossing his hands. “I can handle my coffee just fine, and I can certainly resolve _my own_ case.” He narrowed his eyes, trying to see through Hank. Did he knew something or he was just fucking around? “I’m actually quite close to solving it.” He wanted Anderson to take the bait.

“Bullshit. You’ve got nothing and I have a plan.” Reed smirked when Hank fell into it.

“And you need something from the evidence storage? There’s nothing worth seeing here.” He tried again.

“Listen prick, I know what you’re doing here, but you know what? I don’t give a shit ‘cause I got this by the ass.” Alright, Anderson wasn’t as dense as Gavin thought. “All androids went missing around the same area, like there was something calling them there right?”

“Yeah, we know that thanks to Nines. Tell me something I _don’t_ know.” Reed pointed to his dog.

“Nines _and_ Connor, asshole.” Hank gruffed, finally opening the door to the evidence room by typing the password. He knew Reed wasn’t going to fuck off anytime soon, so he just continued what he was doing earlier. “Anyway, a fucking army of cops couldn’t even get close to finding it, but the malfunctioning androids have no trouble at all. Now that’s ironic.”

“They are receiving some kind of signal or something, yeah I figured this much. But neither Nines or your tin can pick it up, which is good If this really makes androids leave everything and run there.” Gavin followed Lieutenant, not sure where is he going with all of that. When Hank touched the panel, walls moved to reveal a line of shelfs and hooks that were holding stuff linked to this case.

“Yes, because Connor and Nines are _not_ malfunctioning, thankfully.” Older man came closer to the display, searching for something. He stopped by the cage holding a ferret android that they found while looking for Alice Williams. It was Ray, Ralph or something? Lieutenant threw something small into the cage and it started beeping. In the same time, Connor’s LED began to pulsate in the same rhythm. A tracker? Captured android was clearly in some kind of standby mode, not moving and with his eyes closed, LED turned off – but as soon as Connor started scanning him, ferret woke up and curled itself, scared. 

“Wait a fucking second, are you planning to probe something from this fur ball? We were trying this already, it will self-destruct before you could say _oopsie-friggin-doo_.” Ralph was already looking like he was about to burst into flames from stress. Reed had to look away – why were they even keeping this plastic here with all other evidence? Sure, it’s not like it needed anything but still, having it between pieces of clothing, photos or recordings… felt weird when this creature was looking so terrified. Despite being fucking robots, androids were surprisingly not resistant enough with their stress levels. Good thing humans didn’t react like that or Gavin would be dead years ago.

“That’s why I’m going to try something else.” Hank focused on damaged android, who was shaking nervously. Without hesitation, Anderson opened the cage and moved to the side, Connor following him. Both Nines and Gavin were shocked, to say at least.

“Are you really drunk or what?! This is the stupidest idea I’ve ever… Hey!” Ralph decided to take his chance and he jumped on the floor, avoiding Hank and dashing under Gavin to get to the door. Nines was immediately crossing Ralph’s way, growling and pinning ferret to the wall just by staring at it intensively. Ralph curled itself, blinking rapidly with his one functioning eye, his LED steady red. Before Reed could do anything, Connor hopped to Nines shielding ferret android with himself. Nines looked puzzled to say at least and both dogs LEDs flickered like they were having some telepathic brawl.

“You seriously want to let it go?” Gavin grabbed Hank’s collar but Anderson already tapped the button on the panel to open the door and Ralph has sneaked his way out of the room.

“It will lead us to anything that lures them. If you have better idea, I’m fucking listening now.” He gave Reed a sly smile.

“Fowler’s gonna kick you out in a flash..!” Gavin grinded his teeth, breathing through his nose. “And I _was_ going to solve it without doing some crazy ass shit.”

“Not if I actually find out what’s going on here. And really? The only thing you were going to solve is how much more of a jerk can you be with every hour without any results. I think it’s an exponential growth of some sorts.” Hank freed himself from Gavin’s grip. Reed wasn’t really looking at Anderson at this point. He was already furious about not having anything by this point. However stupid, it was _something_ to try. Why did he end up with this old moron again?

“If this goes south, it will be all your fault.”  
***

“Jesus, I hope that’s it at least.” Hank fixed his sight on a big abandoned freighter that was here probably since they closed this part of the docks. Although it was looking like it could be there since the beginning of the time. 

“It’s not like this fucking plastic can go anywhere further.” Gavin growled, waving his hands. Ralph dragged them through half of the Ferndale and they followed him like idiots. It was like the clues to finding this place was dropped in trash cans or sewers, ‘cause Ralph was certainly stopping by every single one. Reed was getting annoyed more with every second of this ridiculous game of Hare and Hounds. Or in this case – ferret and hounds. But now before them there was only this old rusty ship, somehow still floating between all metal trash and water. Unless this dirty noodle was planning to go underwater, there wasn’t a place for it to go. 

“Jericho, huh? Like it couldn’t be a SS Anne or something.” Anderson glanced over a partly blurred sign. Connor and Nines were already sniffing around after Ralph. However Nines stepped on a long metal jib that was maybe a part of crane one day, hanging over a ship and Connor stopped on the ground, looking terrified.

“If this fucker got itself drown there, I’ll personally make sure they’ll fix him just so I can kick his ass..!” Reed made his way after Nines. The whole construction rattled a little, making a crackling sound. Gavin freezed for a moment, gulping nervously. Nines turned his head, frowning at his owner’s clumsiness. Well sorry for not being a slim aluminium ballerina..! Detective held his head high and stepped forward more, although more carefully. He can handle walking a straight line for God’s sake! Even if there was a huge dark deep beneath them.

“Wait you idiot, this thing’s gonna break under your stupid ass! Are you _always_ this suicidal or this is a hobby at this point?” Anderson shouted after Gavin, not walking onto the jib himself. Thank God, this old grizzled bear could’ve brake a whole fucking crane. He must’ve weight over two hundred pounds easily.

“Don’t sweat it fatty, I haven’t grew a beer belly yet so I’m safe. And what’s wrong with your plastic now?” Reed preferred to focus on something that was apparently more scared than him. Connor was glimpsing over the ledge, eyes widen and mouth slightly opened. 

“He doesn’t like heights okay?” Hank snapped, coming over to his dog’s side. Connor went hiding under Anderson and Lieutenant patted his head, muttering some cooing words. Gavin just snorted, not really knowing what’s going on, but he didn’t have time for that – after all they were here for all other missing androids. Nines was standing near the edge already, leaning dangerously, but looking completely focused on something down there. Reed followed him, cursing the wobbly construction in his mind, but not wanting to show any signs of fear.

“Get off there, we can find another way down that doesn’t involve breaking a friggin’ neck..!”

“Oh shut up, I’ve got this!” To prove his point, Gavin tapped his foot on metal under him. Other than a bit of crackling nothing happened, so Reed smirked victoriously, spreading his hands. “See, this is completely…” He was cut off when the jib cracked and collapsed entirely. Reed could only recall a nasty ball growing in his stomach and going up to his head as he was falling. There was a gust of wind covering him and then a cold surface of water.  
Thankfully he was able to fall with his legs first, not on his back or stomach, but the height still caused the water to almost feel like a concrete. The water was cold and firstly Reed wiggled his limbs in uncoordinated, sharp moves, barely registering all the metal pieces falling around him. Fuck, he already drank some water and now it was burning his throat and lungs. He almost panicked even more when something went under his arm and grabbed him, dragging Gavin to the surface, but he realised it was Nines. Reed gasped for air desperately, coughing up water. 

“PHCK!” He made a noise through his nose, coughing even more. This just kept getting better and better with every minute. His eyes were stinging but he tried to look around while clinging to Nines. Down there was so dark, that he couldn’t really see well all that much. Nines was barking at him, sounding both reprimanding and concerned. When Gavin wasn’t responding, focused on cursing between coughs, Nines licked his face.

“I… I’m fine you prick..! PHCK! S-stop it!” Detective pushed himself away from his dog, Nines giving him judging look but not pushing to catch him again. Gavin was able to put himself together enough to swim towards a ladder, fighting against the wet clothes dragging him down, but only because Nines was illuminating his way with his android glowing collar and LED. Reed grabbed the ladder, shivering from a cold.

“REED? You’re better not be dead or I’ll kill you!” He heard Hank’s rambling echoing on the walls.

“What kind of backwards logic is that, dipshit?!” Reed managed to shout, but the sound that came out of him was relatively weak. Apparently it was enough for Anderson to heard him.

“Shit..! Wait there, I’ll get help to get you out!” 

“Hell no! If we’ve come this far… Don’t you dare fuck it up!” Gavin found a source of energy in his anger, although another burst of coughing cut him off for a moment. Fucking Anderson and his stupid ideas! If he just had a balls freezing shower for _nothing_ he’ll have to shoot someone. Most likely Hank. He climbed up the ladder, shivering even more now that cold air was surrounding him. Hello hypothermia.

“And this is ALL your fault!” He added just for a good measure, sitting on the floor to pour the water out of his shoes and to wring his clothes at least a little. Nines jumped out of the reservoir with one smooth move and he shook of water out of him, directly on Reed.

“Fucking hell! Really tin can? Really?” Gavin snapped, even if he was already so wet that a few more drops of it wouldn’t made any difference. However Nines didn’t even bother to listen; he was already running deeper into a ship. Reed mumbled a curse under his breath, panting a little before standing on his feet. He focused on a passageway before him, narrowing his eyes to accustom his sight to the darkness. The whole place was stinking with rust, salty water and oil. Shivering, Detective walked to a massive metal door leading probably to some sort of cabin. The door looked like it was taken from a cold war submarine, and it was probably just as old. He grabbed the wheel and tried to twist it, but it didn’t move an inch. His fucking luck, of course. Reed proceeded to go further, chattering his teeth from cold. The passage was narrow and filled with a bunch of collapsed pillars, just to make Gavin’s life a little bit harder, because why not at this point. He bended over to look at the other side and he caught a glimpse of blue light behind him. He managed not to jump at this sight, realising it was just Nines.

“The fuck is this?” His dog was dragging some kind of tarpaulin with a blurred logo. This was looking so dumb, a high tech android pulling a huge ass piece of material and almost wrapping himself in it. Nines stopped by Reed’s side and he locked his eyes on his owner, nudging Gavin’s hand with the tarp he’s been holding.

“You’re gotta be kidding be.” Gavin snarled, but took the material. Nines was still looking at him, blue eyes pressuring Reed to stop being an idiot just for once. 

“No way, I’m fucking fine.” He growled, walking away from his tin can, but he kept following him, piercing eyes staring at him. This mental battle continued for a couple of seconds, before another wave of shivers came creeping down Detective’s spine. He could be stubborn, but he knew how well could it end.

“Ugh, fine.” He covered himself with cloth that was smelling with rust and moist, but it was better than nothing. Good thing nobody could see him now. Nines huffed with satisfaction and now that he got his human covered (figuratively and literally), he crawled through the rubble blocking the passage. Gavin rolled his eyes, feeling like a little kid wrapped in a blanket, pretending to be a burrito, but he crouched, trying to follow Nines. He was almost on the other side when Nines stiffed, his gaze distant and LED yellow.

“What is…” Something dashed before them, crossing the hallway with lightning speed. Gavin couldn’t really tell what it was, just that it made a huge rumble running between metal stakes laying on the ground. Now Reed did jump, smacking his head on some stakes himself. 

“Shit!” He curled up, now happy that tarpaulin covered him at least a little from falling thrash. Cursing he crawled out of it, just to stare at Nines, judging him again.

“Shut up.” He mumbled, like Nines could actually talk him back. “Was it an android?” He threw the thought into the air. His dog barked, proving that in fact he _can_ talk back. 

“Okay smartass, now find it.” Gavin pulled the tarp closer, trying not to trip over it. Nines was eager to be back on track as he jumped after a mysterious creature. 

“But wait for me you prick!” He shouted, picking up his pace. He was able to catch up with Nines only because he stopped at another submarine-like door. Reed didn’t have high hopes for it, but this time the door actually opened with a high pitched squeak. They led to a huge ass open space, a ship’s hold most likely. At least there was _some_ light coming from holes in the ceiling. Nines was quick to go forward on a bridge above but Gavin has learned his lesson and was more cautious this time.

“I said wait!” He carefully stepped onward, but the construction seemed more solid. What a twisted fuck would pick this collapsing place as a hideout? On the other side, nobody with a brain would bother them there… and that put Gavin in a brainless side. He took another step and all his theory about it being solid was thrown out of window when the bridge broke in half, making Reed fly down again. He bumped into some steel pillar on his way down, feeling the sting on his side, before he eventually stopped on a ground with a huge “bump”. The tarpaulin fell slowly after him, covering his head.

“PHCK! This whole fucking metal can is falling over..!” He wiggled aggressively, throwing the cloth out of him. Now he was cold, wet and fucking sore in many places. Nice, Gavin Reed, nice. He saw something glowing a calming blue, so he assumed it was Nines, but when it came closer he realised his mistake.

“Oh shit…” He whimpered as he saw a fucking mountain lion coming his way and growling in low voice. It’s LED was now red and the whole creature was tense as a string, being prepared to jump at any moment. The tag on its collar said “North”. Gavin tried to move back, but he bumped at something. He turned his head just to stare at a large black horse, also carrying a LED and a name on its chest – “Josh”. Mumbling a curse, Reed crawled to the side, but he saw two dogs with LEDs on their temples. One was a pale Golden Retriever with a scratch on his shoulder and another was a German Shepherd that had a different colour eyes. Gavin was trying to stand very slowly, but a cougar roared at him and he already knew he was fucked. Even grabbing his gun was out of question – apparently that wasn’t approved by androids either. The dog with heterochromatic eyes stepped forward, bypassing the cougar and Reed felt himself being scanned. Good thing Nines jumped out of nowhere, standing before his human and showing his teeth as a sign of warning.

“Jesus…” Reed whispered, now seeing all the other androids surrounding them. Only judging by all the LEDs blinking in the darkness, there must been a ton of them. Well, he could bet all the missing tin cans were here. The only problem now was walking out of here _alive_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to Jericho~~


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is some canon-typical violence against animal androids, so warning I guess?   
> Humans can be idiots (I'm also looking at you, Gavin).

“Shit, just take it easy” Gavin murmured to Nines as much as to himself. This wasn’t looking good right now. All of the androids’ LEDs were flashing around them, like tiny stars on the night sky, but they were actually lighting up some of the androids faces. And there was fear glancing in their eyes, amplified by the blue lights giving them the ghostly look in the surrounding darkness. Reed only hoped that they _were_ more afraid of him than he was of them – at least it would give him some advantage. Nines growled, some blue static coming from grinding his teeth, when the dog with different coloured eyes took a step closer towards them. The puma shifted its weight, getting ready to jump. Things were going to escalate quickly if this was dragging any more. _Okay Gavin, think. For once in your Goddamn life actually think before you act._

“Drop this terminator attitude for a second, you mutt.” He reached to Nines, grabbing his collar and pulling the android away from German Shepherd, before they could start a fight. There was no way Nines could take on this many androids at once, no matter what CyberLife were advertising in their commercials. _The tank, small army and a fetching machine all in one! When you need to overthrow the government and want a reliable pet companion in doing so!_

Nines gave his human an annoyed and puzzled glance, tilting his head just a little but not taking his eyes from the dog before them. Reed also took a look at approaching canine with heterochromatic eyes. The tag on its collar said “Markus” and Gavin vaguely remembered the file of missing android going by the same name, although he could not recall seeing any android with two different eyes. Must’ve been some custom shit or something. Reed tried to reach for a gun in his holster again, but the Shepherd gaze toughened. Gavin wasn’t as stupid as he might look and only grabbed gun with his free hand to slowly put it down on the floor. Markus relaxed a little and took another step forward, trying to sniff the human and this was apparently too much for Nines, as he started barking, echo of it bouncing of the walls.

“Shhh..! Told you to chill the fuck up!” Detective brought his stupid toaster closer to himself but the German Shepherd already turned around and went to the side, not before giving the cougar a long look. The big cat backed off a little but remained tense. Reed followed Markus with his gaze, as dog stopped by something that resembled a barrel. Gavin let Nines go, mostly because none of the androids made any move towards them. At least for now. With that being said, Detective almost jumped of his skin when he heard a soft neigh behind him. Reed twisted his head to see a dark horse holding a tarpaulin that he had previously. Nines lowered his head, tensing at the gesture, but Gavin decided to go along with this bullshit. What other choice did he have?

“You did the same, you hypocritical little shit.” He snapped as the horse took a swing with his long neck and placed the cloth next to human. What was with the androids wanting to give him some trash? Gavin took the material, mostly to not upset the android legion any further but once again focused on Markus. The dog let out a short yelp and a small lizard crawled up the barrel. Before Reed could think what the fuck was going on, the lizard breathed a blue flame and a room was lighted with a fire coming from it. Wait, they could do that? What a sick psycho would build a fucking _flamethrower_ into something that tiny, that kids could have as a pet? Oh right, CyberLife. Apparently there was more of those hellish lizards, as a couple of other barrels was lit as well. 

Trying his best to keep a straight face, Gavin took a chance to scan the room, now that he could actually see more than a few feet around him. The ship’s hold was filled with a number of different boxes and metal junk, most likely since the day it was abandoned. Reed raised his head, gulping slowly now that he saw just how low he has fallen from a bridge above them. He must’ve been born with a silver spoon in his mouth, ‘cause he could easily brake his neck. He stood up to his feet finally, observing other androids’ reaction. They still appeared as scared but now Gavin could take a better look at them. Most of them weren’t in their peak condition. To be honest, it was an understatement – many looked like shit, with a visible wires leaving their bodies, missing limbs and other parts. Clutching to themselves, they were tracking Detective’s movements with a fearful eyes. With no humans willing to spend a fortune to fix them, they were left in this pathetic state, waiting for a shut down. 

“Shit.” Reed whispered despite himself. Even if he knew they weren’t alive or felt pain this send shiver down his spine and he remembered that he was freezing actually. They weren’t looking as threatening, but he had to keep focused – all creatures could be dangerous when in a state of panic and with nothing to lose. With a huff he put the cloth on his shoulders again, taking a few steps forward. The warmness of fire was strangely inviting, but he couldn’t help turning his head all over the place.  
He saw the Golden Retriever coming to the side of an android cat that was laying on the ground, taking the short artificial breaths that it didn’t have to take. Maybe it was to calm itself down, as the cat was missing two of its legs and its skin was scratched deeply in many places, showing the ripped wires. But the most terrifying detail was a fading, blinking light of a circle on its stomach. Even if Gavin didn’t know a thing about plastic critters, this surely suggested a low battery of some sort – this thing will shut down sooner rather than later. Reed couldn’t help but crouch next to the cat, Golden Retriever raising a brow but not stopping Gavin in any way. Nines looked baffled but came after his owner, not wanting to leave his side.

“Hey. It will be over soon.” Brunet gently ran a hand through cat’s back, feeling an icy knot in his throat. Plastic or not, this sight caused a flood of memories that he wasn’t keen to remind himself. Sitting at the vet’s waiting room, smelling with fur and animal urine. Looking at Elijah and their dad as they sat silent, thinking through their decision. Petting their cat for the last time, not finding any words that could be appropriate – how could he make him understand, when he didn’t understood it either? 

What’s worse the scratches and cuts on this android appeared too clean and straight for Reed’s taste. If this was humanity, maybe it was for the best that those machines didn’t have this in them. Now he transferred all his anger of being cold and bruised to a need of punching some douchebag’s guts. He clenched one hand into a fist, while still stroking android’s fur with other. Cat arched it’s back, following the human’s touch and purring quietly. Nines was lurking from behind Gavin’s, scanning the damaged android before looking at his human. Reed only nodded, knowing what result did Nines attain. Still confused, Nines tracked Detective’s movements, not making much of it but overall deciding to crane his neck to little feline, poking it gently with his muzzle. Cat meowed softly at this gesture.

Soon Reed realised that something was creeping to his side, as Nines turned around and stood low, letting out a low snarl at… the bunny. Quite overacted.  
“Seriously, this isn’t going to murder us.” He let out a small chuckle at the sight of his high-tech terminator going all jumpy for a small ginger rabbit. Better never show Nines Monthy Python and the holy grail. On the other hand, Gavin just saw a reptile that could breath fire, so who knows? A rodent with a nuclear incisors? Still, it was just one bunny… Or so he thought – because it was quickly followed by other, identical rabbits, all ginger and with a tag that said “Jerry”. Where they’ve been even hiding? The one closest to Reed sniffed heavily, standing on his back feet and its nose twitching fast. Gavin then realised that he had a small bottle of Thirium in his pocket – just in case, ‘cause you could never knew when Nines would decide to go crazy again.

“Uhh… well. Here you go.” He poured the blue substance to a can that was rolling on the floor. He thought for a moment that he should give it to the cat android, but it would’ve been just cruel. This thing was going to shut down anyway, and Gavin didn’t want to prolong its suffering just to feel the questionable relief of helping it now. Nevertheless, he had to draw himself away from the little furball he’s been petting, feeling his chest tightening. There was a lot of androids in need here and this few drops of blue blood wasn’t going to do much difference here, but giving it away so freely in front of them still rubbed him the wrong way. Reed suddenly felt the urge to take all of them with him. To where, he wasn’t really sure, but anywhere other than _here_ sounded good. 

To Gavin’s surprise, the bunny army haven’t besieged the Thirium right away; instead they guided some other small androids to it. Reed watched as they sipped, when suddenly German Shepherd barked, turning Detective’s attention to the large sheet coming from the ceiling in the middle of hold’s space. It was covering a shipping container like a loosely wrapped present.

“The fuck is this?” Marcus barked again, going behind the curtain and lurking from it, waiting for human to get the idea. Gavin blinked, having a nasty feeling of a trap but to be honest – if those plastics wanted him dead, they could’ve done it already. He stood up, wrapping more in his temporally coat, feeling like a strange king of homeless bums. Or in this case – homeless androids. Nines was already inspecting the container, LED blinking yellow, sometimes flashing a quick red between cycles. Reed had learned to know that red means no good, so he hesitatingly stepped towards the sheets, grabbing the edge of it. There was a soft buzzing sound coming from inside, like from a working computer or other machinery. 

“H̵̻̑e̴̜͐ľ̴̩l̵̲̏ó̴̺ G̷a̶v̸i̷n̷ ̵R̵e̷e̴d̸.” The sound was so unexpected that Gavin jumped back, tripping on his tarpaulin and almost falling on his ass. He managed to keep his balance, clumsily shifting his weight from one leg to another and stomping forward like a drunken dancer, bursting behind the curtain.

“Holy _fucking cow_..!” In the dim light coming through the holes in the container there was _something_ sitting on a pedestal, long wires coming from its head opened in half. The tangled wires were seemingly laying chaotically, but more focused glance revealed that they were in fact connected to a small bizarre machine that was making those humming sounds. In the first thought Gavin was sure this creature was a human – after all it has _said_ something… But under closer inspection it was sure that couldn’t be the case. Even minding the wires, this was looking more ape like, a chimpanzee or maybe gorilla? Or something in between? Not that Gavin could tell the difference. And how could he know his name? this was creepy beyond belief. 

“How do you know my name?!” He sounded more frightened than he wanted to show, but this was something nightmarish.

“Y̸o̴u̵r̸ ̴a̸n̵d̴r̴o̶i̵d̸ ̴s̴e̴n̸d̷ ̸m̸e̸ ̷i̴n̷f̵o̶.̴” Ape-thing answered. Reed noticed LED on its temple. An android? Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Nines, blindly marching to a strange machine, looking fascinated.

“Wait, this could make you haywire or some shit! Hey!” He moved to Nines, crossing his path. Was this a thing that was attracting all those androids to this abandoned rusty can? Might as well be.

“D̴o̸ ̷n̸o̴t̶ ̶b̷e̷ ̵a̷f̸r̶a̷i̴d̴.̵ ̷N̵o̵ ̶d̵a̴n̷g̸e̶r̸.” The creature spoke again, its voice cracking and with a tinge of static. Reed gulped, turning his head slowly. Nines was in awe, gaze focused on machine and not once turning his attention to ape-like thing. Or Gavin. Or anything else. Reed whispered a curse, despite mysterious being claims (or maybe because of them) frightened for his dog.

“N̵o̸ ̸d̸a̴n̵g̸e̴r̷.” Repeated humanoid. Its lips hasn’t moved one bit and Detective realised that it was making some signs with its hands, and the sound was coming from the device behind it. Sign language with a mechanical voice module. Looked unnecessary complicated - and counterproductive, really.

“You talk? How? Why? What is going on here?! Who… _what_ are you?” Gavin spat a litany of questions. 

“I̴ ̶a̴m̵ ̴L̴u̶c̷y̷.̸ ̴T̸h̶e̸y̵ ̸m̵a̵d̸e̵ ̵m̶e̵ ̸t̸o̶ ̴t̸e̶a̶c̶h̴ ̶t̶a̶l̶k̵i̵n̶g̵ ̵w̶i̷t̷h̸ ̴h̸a̴n̵d̵s̶.̸” She than pointed to a pint-sized machinery, her wires waving gently with this move. “A̵n̶d̶ ̴t̵o̶ ̵t̴a̶l̵k̶ ̶t̸o̴ ̷h̴u̶m̷a̵n̷s̷ ̷a̷n̴d̸ ̴a̶n̷d̷r̸o̶i̴d̵s̶.̷ ̷T̵h̵i̴s̴ ̴i̴s̴ ̸t̴e̴l̵l̵i̸n̷g̴ ̶t̵h̸e̸m̵ ̷t̸h̷i̵s̵ ̵i̴s̴ ̷a̴ ̴s̵a̶f̶e̶ ̴p̴l̸a̷c̷e̵.̸”

“Hold your horses.” Reed shook his head, trying to process this in his brain. “You’re airing some kind of lure? Why?” He clenched his fist on Nines’ collar, just in case. This was a classic sci-fi scenario where robots plan to destroy humanity if he ever saw one. Was she corrupting them?

“N̸o̵ ̴l̸u̷r̴e̸.̶ ̵J̸u̴s̷t̷ ̵i̸n̶f̶o̵r̶m̸a̴t̴i̶o̵n̶.̵” Lucy looked up, showing her blank eyes. Was she blind?

“Do you realise that all those androids are missing? That many are at the edge of _shutting down_?” Now Gavin was furious. He didn’t care what he was looking at exactly – the only thing that mattered now was the fact that this thing was gathering them here, with no chance of getting any help. He stepped forward, straightening his back and keeping his head high. “Do you want to watch them slowly dying? Because this is all that awaits them here.”

“N̶̞̂ö̴̜́.” Now the humanoid hunched back, baffled. “I̸ ̷e̸s̶c̴a̷p̵e̵d̶ ̴a̵n̷d̶ ̵c̵a̶m̶e̸ ̸h̶e̴r̸e̶.̸ ̵S̵i̷l̷e̶n̷t̷.̶ ̷B̶u̷t̶ ̶I̸ ̵h̶e̸a̸r̵d̶ ̶t̸h̵e̴i̷r̵ ̷c̴r̷y̷i̵n̶g̵ ̴a̶n̶d̷ ̵f̷e̶a̷r̴ ̸e̵v̵e̵r̴y̷d̵a̵y̷,̶ ̴s̸o̵…̵I̶ ̸t̷o̸l̴d̸ ̸t̵h̷e̷m̶ ̴i̶s̸ ̶s̴a̸f̶e̴ ̴h̵e̶r̶e̵”.

“Well, they can’t stay in this shitty dumpster. I’m taking them with me.” The firmness in Gavin’s voice was harsh, but he couldn’t help but feel a bit of compassion for this humanoid. It clearly wasn’t aware how damaging her actions could be. No good intention would go unpunished, as someone once said.

“P̸̟͝l̴͎͑ę̵͛ä̵͓s̸̯̍e̵͉͘.” Lucy stood on her feet, briefly grabbing hands of human before her. She was shaking slightly. “H̴u̸m̸a̵n̷s̵ ̴d̶o̴n̷’̸t̸ ̸w̸a̵n̶t̴ ̶u̴s̴.̸ ̴S̴h̴u̶t̷ ̵u̷s̸ ̴d̶o̴w̷n̶.̸ ̸D̷a̵m̴a̷g̶e̷ ̷u̶s̵.̴ ̷W̷e̴ ̶h̵a̵v̴e̴ ̴t̷o̴ ̴s̶t̷a̸y̸ ̷h̷e̵r̴e̶,̷ ̸w̵a̸i̴t̸.̷”̷ Even if her voice was just a broken synthesizer, cracking with static, brunet could sense how much sorrow it delivers.

“Wait for kicking the bucket? That’s fucking low.” Reed grunted, but he immediately saw the image of android cat, surely wounded by some dickhead. Not that he couldn’t understood why they were running away, but here they could only be free _and_ without any chance to survive in the long run. Markus appeared next to Lucy, visibly nervous about the outcome of this.

“Y̴o̸u̵ ̸c̴a̸n̴ ̴u̶n̴d̸e̵r̵s̴t̶a̸n̴d̵ ̸r̵u̷n̷n̵i̶n̸g̵ ̴a̷w̷a̷y̶.̷ ̶Y̴o̶u̷ ̵c̸a̴n̶ ̸u̴n̶d̷e̶r̶s̵t̷a̸n̴d̶ ̵l̶o̶s̸s̷.̶ ̶I̵ ̴k̴n̸o̴w̶.” Humanoid was looking on Gavin desperately, her dark eyes seeing through him like two small galaxies. “T̶r̸u̵s̸t̸ ̷m̸e̴.̷ ̵I̸ ̵c̵a̴n̵ ̶s̶e̵e̶ ̷y̵o̶u̶ ̸c̸a̶n̵ ̶h̵e̴l̵p̸ ̴u̴s̴ ̸w̷h̷e̵n̴ ̵t̴i̶m̵e̴ ̷w̶i̶l̷l̵ ̶c̵o̵m̷e̴.̵”  
“  
You know nothing about me.” Brunet’s shoulders tensed as he started backing off and glancing over Nines, who seemed to swing to the rhythm of gentle buzz of the machine. 

“And what time are you talking about?” He hated those riddles, even if maybe this was a result of this twisted type of communication – a voice device trying to catch on sign language. He didn’t get the answer, as suddenly a large thud filled the air, soon followed by another. Nines woke up from a trance he’s been in and stood by his human at last. Markus agitated, frowning at human, scanning him for a brief moment with pinning gaze, but dashed out of the container to check what the fuck is going on. 

“H̴̫̍ū̸͈m̴̰͆a̵̯̾n̵͓̉s̴̰̐.” Lucy’s electronic voice became more glitchy, shaking with fear. Gavin bit his lower lip – he almost forgot that this old moron was supposed to get help. Took him long enough… And supposedly it was a true American way of helping, as he heard a distant explosion that bounced on metal walls of the ship. Someone wasn’t going to just fall on his ass like Reed but rather walk in through a wall.

“Phck..!” Detective rushed forward. All androids were in a state of complete panic – running around and hiding wherever they could, although the damaged ones stayed behind, crawling the best they could. Those police morons ruined everything!

“Fuckin’ cops!” He snapped, not minding the irony that he _was_ a cop himself. He could handle this situation alone and figure something out to gradually take the tin cans from here, but now it was fucked up entirely. He run towards the source of sounds, leaving his tarpaulin behind – he didn’t wanted for anything to slow him down. Minding the robots flying underneath him, he jumped over a hopping horde of Jerry’s. Nines dashed, bypassing his human and climbing to the top of stairs with a few long bounces. Reinforcements were apparently going through the main door, by simply blowing it up. Very subtle, really. Not saying that Reed haven’t made an entrance like this couple of times already, but the situation didn’t call for it. He could take care of himself, Goddamnit! While Nines was barking loudly at the damaged door, it fell off the hinges and dropped on the ground, revealing a squad of police officers behind.

“Reed!” A familiar face of Captain Allen appeared, and Gavin’s hands immediately curled into a fists. He always hated this prick. “The fuck you’re doing? You’re lucky we…” Captain’s tirade was brutally interrupted by Reed’s fist connecting to older man’s face. Captain’s head whirled , leaving Allen gaping for a solid moment.

“No, the fuck _you_ are doing?” Gavin shouted, ignoring all other officers looking at him like he lost his mind. “Who asked you to make all this mess?!”

“We came to rescue you!” Captain seemed outright offended. He was glancing over Detective, confused and angry. “Anderson said…”

“Fuck Anderson! I didn’t need any help!” This statement was a stretch, but Gavin wouldn’t admit it even if his life depended on it. “I found the missing androids, but you started blowing shit up! Genius! Pure genius! And now they all went ape shit and hidden all over the place so we have to play hide and seek!”

“Watch your damn mouth Reed!” Allen pushed younger man out of his way. “Back off and let us do our job.” The cops already went through the door, passing frustrated Detective and his android.

“I’d rather jump down here on my ass again than let you knuckleheads fuck up _my_ fucking case!” Reed pushed Captain in response and chased after officers. The androids were still spazzing out and the presence of armed humans only made it worse. One officer picked up small dog android, who started whining and wiggling in panic. 

“Wait! WAIT! That’s not how you’re supposed to do it! You’re scaring them!” He pulled the dog from the officer. The android took its chance and bit Gavin, making human drop it down. The officer looked at Reed like he was fucking crazy, but went after another android. Detective looked around, staying in the eye of the storm. People and robots were racing all over the place, which under other circumstances could be funny – a SWAT squad running after various animal androids, like they were at the fucking zoo. Swearing under his breath, Gavin looked for his gun, still laying somewhere on the ground in all this chaos.

“Nines! Get my fucking gun!” Before he know it, Nines came with his weapon, giving his owner little smirk. “Thanks tin can.” Reed climbed on wooden crate and fired his gun, getting humans attention. Well, not only humans, as he felt something heavy jumping on him and throwing him off the crate. He found himself pinned to the ground by a puma with a tag “North”, losing his breath for a second when his back hit the floor. The cougar roared inches from his face and Gavin flinched. Maybe he didn’t have the prettiest face, but he still _liked_ it in one piece. Thankfully North was soon body slammed by Nines, and big cat practically flew few feet away. Two androids growled at each other, slowly moving in circle, both tense as a string. 

“Oh fuck my life..!” Still on the ground, Reed managed to pick up his weapon and this caused North to jump on RK900. Or rather it was an attempt to jump on him, because the Golden Retriever from earlier appeared from nowhere and blocked it. Puma stopped, claws scratching deep lines in the ground but Nines was already attacking in response, blue static flying from his teeth. He bumped into Golden pup, instinctively clutching on it. A wave of electricity went through pale dog, making canine shiver and it go limp short after, collapsing on the floor. Nines looked startled, terrified even. He bolted back, glancing over unconscious body of another dog. North roared viciously, but then Markus swiftly appeared to big cat’s side, gently pocking blacked out canine. Nines curled his tail under his stomach, as soft look of heterochromatic eyes hardened significantly when Shepherd shifted its gaze from Golden Retriever to RK900.

“Just wait morons, all of you!” Gavin threw his hands into the air. This was already a disaster and to think that he of all people was the reasonable one here (at least in his mind) was ironic. He tried to think of any solution that wasn’t just shooting fucking Allen to his stupid face, but it was tempting. How to get to this blockhead? Then he realised – Lucy. Literally dragging Nines with him, before this escalate even more, he searched for Allen. He found him pointing a riffle at android deer and yelling orders at other dipshit cops. What a douchebag.

“Come with me. Now.” He spat. Captain let out a sigh, ignoring Detective completely.

“I’m talking to you asshole!” Grabbing Allen’s arm and forcing him to turn around maybe wasn’t the best idea, but at least it got his attention.

“Stay out of it, or we’ll have to pacify you for obstructing our work.” Captain’s nose twitched on Reed’s presence, like Detective was a big cockroach. Upon being treated like shit, Gavin lost all of his patience. If anything, it was _his_ work.

“You _will_ go with me.” He pulled his gun and smirked when Allen sighed heavily, but his eyes widened a little, not sure how the younger man will act. Surely Reed wasn’t that much of an idiot, right? 

“Don’t do anything stupid Reed.”

“If you know me, you already know the answer.” Detective huffed. Making stupid decisions was an art and he was a master in it. He made a short move with his weapon, pointing to the container. “I’m gonna show you something, and then…” And then, something heavy smacked him in the head and he blacked out, just like that.  
***

“Ughhh… Fucking hell…” Gavin was woken up by a headache. Not the usual hangover headache, but more like the mother of all headaches. Something was ringing inside his skull, pulsating from the back of his head. Reed gave himself a moment to accommodate to this nasty feeling, before he opened his eyes, feeling the heaviness of eyelids. Narrowing his eyes, he sat up, realising he’s been laying on the floor of police van, Nines next to him. RK900 lifted his head, scanning human carefully and poking Detective’s cheek with his nose.

“Shit… Still alive tin can, you can cut it off.” Brushing Nines’ muzzle aside, he turned his head around, getting the dizziness almost immediately. However he noticed where he was – on the top of the docks again, with the rusty ship emerging in the distance. SWAT guys were walking around, carrying a cages of various sizes, quiet whines coming from them. But what’s worse, there was also a bunch of assholes in white jackets with a CyberLife logo on them. Wait, what? Who invited those pricks? The pounding in his head only increased as he went angrier. Standing up wasn’t the best idea, the dizziness returning and making him sit down on his ass. Nines went under Reed’s arm to support his clumsy human. 

“Look, our sleeping beauty finally got up!” Oh fuck, he didn’t need Anderson’s nagging now. Gavin moved his hands to massage his temples, God this was already too annoying to survive.

“What’s going on here? And what truck hit me?” He didn’t like the shit-eating grin Hank was giving him.

“I got the help, duh. And well, what did you expect? You punched this jerk Allen _and_ threatened him with a gun. One of his boys just returned the favour by pacifying you.” Lieutenant shrugged. Connor was close to him, eyeing the humans dealing with the androids with a fearful expression. “You’re lucky I got there, your terminator went crazy and almost knocked out three officers… good thing Connor managed to calm him down.”

“Couldn’t you do something _before_ I got beaten up?” Reed snapped, still bitter.

“Fuckers didn’t want us around, so we have to take… an alternate route.” Gavin decided that he didn’t care – Anderson always was a dick to him.

“Why fucking Allen? Shit, why the SWAT anyway? And what’s up with CyberLife guys?” He asked instead.

“If you have to know, I didn’t ask for this douchebag _or_ mad scientists.” Hank lowered his voice and leaned over Detective. Now Gavin could tell Anderson was just as frustrated by the presence of all those idiots as he was, if not more. “Something’s up, ‘cause I called our police station to get our buddies here, but Allen and CyberShit came anyway. And they got here really fast, to be honest.”

“You think they were spying us?” 

“I don’t think, I know it.” Hank stated, looking over his shoulder to focus on androids being locked up in a huge CyberLife truck. “Like they were waiting for it. I mean, they already came with those trucks and everything, even if I never mentioned that we found something – I only knew you dived like a moron, not that you’ve found an android Noah’s ark.” 

“Whatever. I had it under control, but they threw it out the window. We could captured all of them right here and now, but…”

“Whoa, you really think we should allow _that_?” Lieutenant frowned, looking quite upset and Reed couldn’t really figure out why exactly.

“We were supposed to find and take them back Anderson.” Brunet searched his pockets for a pack of cigarettes. His body slowly remembered all the shit he’d been through, so he needed something to forget about it.

“Yes, but not like this!” Hank threw his hands into the air. “Do you seriously think we should allow those assholes to lay a finger on androids? There’s something fishy about all of this and I can already tell plastics are gonna suffer because of it.”

“Okay smartass, then what are we supposed to do? Shoot down all of them? Or leave the tin cans here? Half of them were broken beyond belief, they would just perish! Passed on! Ceased to be! Became ex-androids!” Now Reed was red as a beet. This whole day was just too much and he was almost boiling inside. Nines forcefully held his human in the place by holding Gavin’s hood.

“I..! I don’t know!” Anderson almost sheepishly admitted, shaking his head. “But definitely _not_ to handle them to CyberLife!”

“What’s up with this grudge against CyberJerks? I don’t trust them either, but your obsession takes the cake! If somebody knows how to fix the droids, it’s them, like it or not!”

“You really think they’re gonna fix them?” Hank laughed without a smallest bit of joy in his voice. “You got slammed in the head worse than I thought.” Gavin slouched his shoulders under Anderson’s judging gaze. Reed wasn’t that naive, but what this old prick thought they could do? Blow up CyberLife? And what for – to stop androids being made all together?

“You know what? Fuck you. It was your brilliant idea anyway, so we’re in this shit thanks to you.” He decided to be as mature as always and flipped older man out.

“You’re welcome prick.” Hank turned on his heel, taking Connor with him. Nines gave Reed questioning look, but his owner just let out a growl and continued to search for cigarettes. Fucking Anderson. Fucking Allen. Fucking CyberLife. Fucking androids. He turned himself to face the inside of a van and not to look at captured tin cans. It was all for nothing, as he lost his lighter somewhere.

“You don’t have a flamethrower inside, don’t you?” He stared at Nines.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I took Lucy's way of communicating from the movie Congo, because why not~~


End file.
